Anthony's Angels: Caitlyn Todd Guardian Angel
by SASundance
Summary: Special Agent Caitlyn Todd never expected that after Ari Haswari took her life with a bullet, she would end up as a Guardian Angel, sworn to watch over her friend and former partner, one Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo. What she discovered, was that it was no easy job and also taught her some valuable lessons about herself along the way. Part 2 of the Boxed In tag up
1. Chapter 1

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS only the idea for this story is mine nor I am making any money from it.

Beta: Arress has kindly offered to take on this monolith, so thank-you so much. Any errors are my bad of course.

Acknowledgements: Reviews are gratefully appreciated even if I can't always thank you all personally. Issuing a challenge to lurkers; I love hearing from you too so drop me a review or PM, it really is completely painless. Also thanks to those people who have already alerted and favourited the Angel Series. Your support means a lot.

Summary: This is part of a three-way series called Anthony's Angels. It consists of Guardian Angel Caitlyn Todd, Guardian Angel Paula Cassidy and Guardian Angel Jenny Shepard. Every chapter in each series will be a stand -alone piece. A very brief précis of the trilogy series is that each of the former NCIS Agents have been appointed as Guardian Angels and been assigned to protect Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo because he is such a trouble magnet that he requires more supervision than the average mortal. The three former agents are chosen first and foremost for their prior connection to him, although other factors are also in play and will be revealed over time.

Angel Author's Note: This report is to the best of my ability and recollection, an accurate account of what occurred after Ari Haswari, decided to take my life to torture my boss Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs. My opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Guardian Angel Committee here at GA Central.

Anthony's Angels

Former Special Agent Caitlyn Todd

Chapter 1: Lights Out

I remember taking a round in my Kevlar vest when I dived in front of a bullet. I was trying to protect Gibbs from the terrorists who were attempting to blow up a crowded pier, which was full to the brim with service personnel, along their loved ones who turned out to greet them as they arrived back from the Gulf. A soft target that could have caused maximum casualties.**1**

I also remember Tony and Gibbs had to help me to my feet, with the relief that comes from the aftermath of an adrenaline rush. My legs had turned to jelly and I was winded, because while a vest can stop a bullet, being shot still packs an enormous punch. It felt like a thousand Gibbses had Marine-slammed me in the chest, and I knew I was going to have one heck of a bruise and maybe a cracked rib or two. Tony and Gibbs, once they found that I was okay and had set me back on my feet again, engaged with me in the sort of banter that law enforcement professions carry on with, which comes of walking too close to death, too often. The next thing I remember is a searing pain to my head and then… nothingness.

When I woke up, I found a friendly face smiling at me. Special Agent Chris Pacci was watching me with his familiar grin, although there had to be something wrong here. Pacci had been killed while working on a cold case. I had worked his murder with Tony and Gibbs, so how could he be here smiling down on me unless... His eyes clouded over when he saw the realisation dawning on my face, as I sprang up and looked all around. It had to be some sort of mistake, some nightmare or a hallucination. The alternative was unthinkable! Pacci continued to watch me with a sympathetic expression on his face, before finally speaking gently.

"It's really, really good to see you, Cate, although I'm sorry it has to be under these circumstances."

"I'm dead aren't I, Chris?" I asked fearfully.

"I'm so sorry, Cate. I'm afraid you are and I've been here waiting for you for a while now."

He smiled at my puzzlement and told me he would explain everything soon, as well as answer any questions I had. He explained that when someone was killed violently or when their death was unanticipated, The Powers That Be always made sure that there was a friendly face, or at least someone else who had a similar experience, to help them through the aftermath of the Probie's death.

Chris smiled and said, "I fit the bill on both of those scores, so I was co-opted to be your guide."

I nodded, but focused on something that he had said. "So are you saying I'm a Probie? What sort of Probie? I was a Secret Service Agent before becoming a Special Agent with NCIS. I ... am... not... a...Probie," I exclaimed and even to my own ears, I sounded petulant.

"Yes, Cate, you are now a Probationary Guardian Angel. Every newly ascended soul has to serve a probationary period before they are granted permanent residency status. Good law enforcement personnel are much sought after as Guardian Angels, and it is considered to be the most plumb of jobs up here. Some of the less glamorous jobs that Probies are assigned to when they first arrive... well, they aren't so great."

Chris looked at me to see how I was handling the information, knowing that it was all a lot to take in at once. Unfortunately, he had a lot more to share with me and some of it would not be easy to hear.**2**

In the meantime, I watched the complex array of emotions play over Chris's familiar face. Somehow, I could tell that he had information to impart that I probably wouldn't want to hear. Thanks to my training as an investigator, courtesy of team Gibbs, I knew that there was something pretty big that he wasn't telling me. So, I decided to make it easy on him and just ask.

"Okay Chris, I can tell there's more that you have to tell me, but don't want to. Whatever it is, I can handle it. I'm a Federal Agent... I mean I was a Federal Agent. Give it to me straight."

So he told me all of it, how Tim, Abby and I were all supposed to die at the hand of Ari, but how Tony's heroism had been deemed by The Powers That Be to be rewarded by sparing Abby and McGee, but not me. That I had been chosen as the one to pay the ultimate debt because I had had the chance to kill Ari and prevent it from happening, but I had hesitated. Despite my training, I had been taken in by the expression in Ari's eyes and he had managed to escape, to wreak havoc on innocent victims.**3**

I must say that it was a lot to take in; that I was supposed to arrive here yesterday, and that I should have had company. Although I'm glad that Tim and Abby's lives were saved, I am still sad that I have had to leave my family and my team behind. Still, all of us in law enforcement accept that we may be called upon to sacrifice our life whenever we are on duty. It was obviously my time, and thanks to Tony, I got to spend another day with my team and helped keep Gibbs safe from Ari. When it came to Ari and getting shot, I owed the boss that much!

Almost as if he could tell what I had been thinking, Chris smiled and said, "There are some people that want to thank you for watching Gibbs' six and making him take care of himself. You'll meet them soon, but first let me show you the office and brief you on your mortal. Come on."

Pacci strode away from the room that I had awakened in. He explained that there are numerous arrival rooms when Probie GA's disembark after dying. As it can be an overwhelming experience, it was thought to be less stressful to arrive with just one familiar face to smooth the way and show Probies the ropes. Then he showed me the office, which didn't look all that much different from the bull pen back at NCIS, except for the absence of that dang-awful, burnt orange colour; something I won't be missing, I decided ruefully. The office was white and light-filled and the glass-like ceiling made it possible to see the bright cerulean blue that reminded me of the boss's impossibly blue eyes. I glanced around at all the desks and devices that looked a bit like a computer, but not exactly, that were kind of hovering above the desks. Chris stopped in front of one desk that was shared by a beautiful young red-headed woman and a brown-haired, blue-eyed smiling little girl.

They both looked up at our approach and smiled. The little girl ran up to me and hugged me squealing, "Cate ... Cate, you're here! You watched my Daddy's six, I love you sooo much."

I looked over at the woman who held out her hand for me to shake and said, "Caitlyn, we've been looking forward to meeting you finally, although I'm sorry for your sake that it had to be now and under these circumstances." She looked at me with sorrow-filled eyes, no doubt aware I had drawn the short straw." My name is Shannon Gibbs, Jethro is my husband and this is Kelly, our daughter."

I was shocked. "Jethro had a daughter? I know he had three wives, but he never mentioned being a father."

"I know, he doesn't speak of us because it hurts him too much. Jethro has been married four times, although he only has three ex-wives," she explained sadly. "I know that he mightn't act like it, but your team has become like a family to him, so thankfully, he has stopped his constant marriages, trying to fill the void that our death wrought on him. Thank you for helping him to heal, Cate. In some ways you and Abby have become surrogate daughters to him. He is going to take your loss very hard, I'm afraid."

Shannon looked very concerned, but then shook herself slightly and said, "We are looking forward to working closely with you and your mortal. We often needed to work closely with his former GAs. He and Jethro are a full time job, that's for sure."

I looked from Chris to Shannon and he smiled and said, "I haven't got around to reading Cate in on who she will be watching over yet, Shannon." He looked at me and grinned. "I sure hope you're up for a challenge, Cate, 'cause he won't be an easy one to watch over. He has already gone through a surfeit of GAs who end up taking stress leave, but we're hoping you will have a bit more stamina. After all, you did protect the president."

I was starting to feel pretty queasy now about who my mortal was going to be. Why would they give such a raw recruit such a challenging case, when I was just a Probationary Guardian Angel? Pacci was watching my silent speculation with a bit of a smirk, and decided to put me out of my misery.

"Cate, meet your mortal that you have been charged with watching over and protecting," And he summoned up a screen with a flourish and flicked his hand and a very familiar smile beamed out at me.

"DiNozzo's the one I have to watch over? No wonder you have had so many GAs. He is the most annoying person I've ever met and you want me to watch over him?" I ranted totally exasperated. "Why are you guys trying to punish me with a misogynistic, juvenile, skirt chasing jock? What deadly sin did I commit to get this penance? Are you sure that I'm not in purgatory, Chris?"

"That's right, Cate, I'd forgotten you're a Catholic, aren't you?" He smirked, not answering my half serious but utterly snarky comment. "I need you to study Tony's dossier and then we'll talk."

He leaned across and explained that their memory device was a bit like a computer, but that it could replay pivotal experiences in a mortal's existence with one very significant difference. It also had sensory and emotive components that allowed GAs who were viewing the memories to experience exactly what their mortals had experienced over the course of their lives. In other words, thoughts, emotions and perceptions were all able to be accessed in real time by a Guardian Angel as they reviewed memories. Talk about voyeurism!

I could almost hear Tony quipping, "Oh, peachy, we have sens-o-vision and feel-a-vision... can hardly wait."

Chris explained that you only needed to think about whatever it is you want to know; that you could jump forward and back in time, too. Although this was a fascinating concept and I was curious to see it in action, I was still extremely irritated by the prospect of having to watch out for DiNozzo, let alone watch Dinozzo's life history of drinking contests, conquests and frat boy behaviour combined with his privileged childhood. I was thinking about polo parties, dressage, elocution lessons and debutante balls; although a small voice reminded me that a small boy trailing around with a poo bucket at historic re-enactments didn't exactly fit my idea of an idyllic childhood, if it was true. He'd shared that little gem during a long and boring stake-out but I'd figured he been joking or exaggerating. Then again, all of his stories about his childhood sounded utterly implausible.

"Chris, I'm a trained profiler. I've worked with DiNozzo for two years now. That is more than enough time to learn everything there is to know about him. He never shuts up, after all, and it's not like he is that complex, even. He's a jock for Pete's sake," I whined petulantly.

Pacci eyed me speculatively, eyebrows raised before saying mildly, "Can you please just humour me, Cate? Call it a favour to an old friend. I'm sure that you'll find a few things that you didn't know about Tony, and it's important to know as much as you can about the mortal you're assigned to watch over in order to do the job properly," He lectured me seriously. "It might surprise you to know that Tony has been deeply traumatised by your death and he is feeling incredibly guilty that he couldn't save your life. His grief and guilt are going to stay with him for a very long time."

He strode off without saying another word, and I saw Shannon and Kelly smiling across at me as I sat down rather gingerly at my new desk.

I decided to check out what Chris had just told me about Tony. It was kind of flattering to think that he was affected by my death, and anyway, working backwards through his file was just as valid as starting at the beginning. I thought about my death, which was quite strange, because I still had difficulty accepting that I was dead. I mean, I didn't feel dead. All at once I was overwhelmed by a rush of pain that stole my breath away and made it difficult for me to breathe, although I realised that I was actually just experiencing Tony's pain.

As I adapted a little, I was able to differentiate individual emotions, such as crushing guilt like I have never before experienced, and a white hot fury that was all consuming. I was shocked that the juvenile class clown that I knew could feel such intense and destructive emotions. I would never have believed it, and it scared me more than I cared to admit. His fury, in particular, was more consistent with what I imagined that Gibbs was capable of, having been on the wrong end of it often enough, especially when a child had been hurt or killed. Or after Ari shot poor Gerald and held us hostage before compounding the insult and placing a bullet into Gibbs' shoulder.

Curious to learn what had happened to Abby, who had been my best friend since joining NCIS two years ago, I mentally asked the question. I saw how Tony had gone straight to the lab when he got back to check on his friend, knowing how upset she must be, and found her conversing with a Goth-like apparition of me that Abby's subconscious had dredged up. Seriously, Abbs, a peroxide blonde?

Tony had approached her cautiously at first, like you might an injured wild animal or a terrified child. Slowly and with infinite care and love for his friend, he stilled her hyperactive ranting before finally enveloping her in a fierce hug as she cried out her pain and grief at losing me. To my surprise, Tony, the frat boy, was attempting to surround Abby with a protective blanket of empathy and love, even while he tried to absorb some of her overwhelming grief. While he didn't seem to be aware of what he was doing, at least consciously, nevertheless that was what happening.

Abby seemed to calm and find her centre, before Tony stilled momentarily as his acute senses picked up the most minute of changes in the environment. He pushed her down on the floor and completely covered her with his large lanky frame, before dragging her to safety as bullets exploded in the normally ordered world of Abby's lab, as Ari attempted to kill Gibbs' other surrogate daughter, too. This was the Senior Field Agent that I knew well. Fearless and cool under pressure, except that while he seemed outwardly calm and focused, his dark and terrible anger was so extreme that I felt that my head was going to explode. I had to stop, get up and move around. Shannon took one look at me and smiled knowingly.

"Let me guess, Cate, you got a taste of Tony's anger? He is such an intense man with strong emotions; it takes it out of you when you aren't used to actually experiencing it. It's very different from simply seeing it," She sympathised. "Just go slow or you'll burn out like the others. At least you know Tony, so that should help. You'll be prepared."

While I appreciated her words of encouragement, I felt too embarrassed to admit that I had absolutely no idea that Tony had such a dark and consuming side to his personality. After all I am a profiler, so why didn't I pick up on these traits in my partner. I began to seriously wonder if I was up for this.

* * *

End Notes

Amphibious Armed Strike Force was returning from deployment from the Gulf. The USS Kennedy was part of the fleet and Special Agent Paula Cassidy was on board and DiNozzo was planning on hooking up with her that weekend before my death changed all that. Gibbs had looked seriously peeved when Tony revealed in the car on the way to stop the terrorists that they were still seeing other, although I thought it was sweet because they were cute together.

2. Chris told me later that he was wondering how to tell me that I was actually meant to die 30 hours before I finally did and that that my probie partner, Tim McGee, was also supposed to die as well? How did he explain that our destiny had been forever changed when Tony DiNozzo had chosen to return to work a week earlier than he should have, after surviving the plague and saved the lives of his two partners? Tell me that by his choice, he was also able to save the Forensic Scientist, Abby Scuito, who was also my best friend, from being killed by a bullet? That even though DiNozzo had managed to save three of his team, The Powers That Be had insisted that while he should be rewarded for his sacrifice and courage for placing his own life in mortal danger, at least one life must still be lost to balance up the ledger. He said he wanted to know how he could he tell me that out of the three people that were supposed to die, I had been the one deemed to be the one to pay the ultimate sacrifice? That out of a choice between McGee, Scuito and me, Cate Todd, I was chosen because I had had within my grasp the power to save my own life and many others months ago when I had the opportunity to kill Ari and had hesitated?

from getting Gibbs shot in the shoulder during that wretched hostage situation, Ducky's assistant, Gerald, had been seriously wounded and ended up with a permanent disability. He never managed to resume his duties at NCIS, which increased my guilt that I hadn't followed that oft quoted Latin adage – carpe diem- when I had a chance. Ari suckered me, which was pretty dang embarrassing to a professional profiler.


	2. Chapter 2

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS only the idea for this story is mine. I am making any money from it.

Beta: Arress has kindly offered to take on this monolith. Any errors are my bad of course.

Acknowledgements: Reviews are gratefully appreciated even if I can't always thank you all personally. Issuing a challenge to lurkers. I love hearing from you too so drop me a review or PM, it really is a completely painless process, pinky swear. Also thanks to those people who have already alerted and faved the Angel Series. Your support means a lot.

Author's note: Just a reminder that this series is obviously AU and some of Tony's background is not strictly canon although the continuity of canon by the screen writers remains somewhat hinky especially when it comes to a very special agent. Generally, each chapter will be based upon specific episodes though.

Summary: This is part of a three-way series called Anthony's Angels. It consists of Guardian Angel Caitlyn Todd, Guardian Angel Paula Cassidy and Guardian Angel Jenny Shepard. Every chapter in each series will be a stand -alone piece. A very brief précis of the trilogy series is that each of the former NCIS Agents have been appointed as Guardian Angels and been assigned to protect Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo because he is such a trouble magnet that he requires more supervision than the average mortal. The three former agents are chosen first and foremost for their prior connection to him, although other factors are also in play and will be revealed over time.

Angel Author's Note: This report is to the best of my ability and recollection, an accurate account of what occurred after Ari Haswari, decided to take my life to torture my boss Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs. My opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Guardian Angel Committee here at GA Central.

Chapter Two: Getting To Know You

So here I am; a probie... Again! Who would have thought that Special Agent Caitlyn Todd would be embarking upon a new career? Except this time it isn't of my choosing and I have been appointed a probationary Guardian Angel (because I'm dead) and if that isn't disturbing enough, I have been informed that the mortal that I have been entrusted to watch over is my ex-partner, Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo. Whoever said that God didn't have a sense of irony was wrong! Very, very wrong.

I have just started studying Tony's file, and while I thought that I knew pretty much all there was to know about him, I am now more than a little red faced. As a trained psychological profiler there shouldn't be any surprises in his file, but I've only been looking for a short time and already I am wondering if my Tony is the same one that is outlined in this file. There seems to be little congruence between the two and I am feeling a little threatened by it.

I decided I needed a break for a while after dealing with Tony's emotions surrounding my death and the near death of Abby. Emotions that have left him in a great deal of pain and angry beyond my comprehension; yet outwardly, he still manages to appear calm and professional. I wonder how much it costs him to keep up his pretence of being a happy-go-lucky individual who is pretty superficial. How much self control does DiNozzo have, because before today I would have said that he has less impulse control than a five-year-old? And then there is the horror of delving into his childhood where he was subject to a combination of parental psychopathology, addiction, benign neglect and unfortunately, calculated abuse.

So, while I waited for my head to settle down after threatening to explode with the intensity of emotions that I experienced, I decided to gather some Intel from Shannon. She was sympathetic about my initial attempts to get up to speed with Tony's file, and I am also curious about her statement about working together. So, I strolled over and sat down at her desk. The petite, yet feisty red-headed woman smiled at me and asked how it was coming along.

"Hi, Shannon ... It's umm... really difficult actually. I am feeling like a prize chump. Tony was my partner for two whole years and it turns out I never knew him at all. All those stupid stories about his mother drinking his sea monkeys and being left behind in Maui and taking his father's snow suit for a Halloween costume; they were all true. I have to admit that I always put those tales down to fantasies he wove when we were on some boring stake-out to while away the time and entertain us both. I always scoffed or told him he deserved it all, along with many more horrific incidents he joked about, and now I know they've caused him such terrible pain. I never, ever picked up on that. I really thought he was joking."

I always felt that I was so much better than DiNozzo, but I didn't feel so darned superior any more. In fact, I feel pretty small actually. This really is turning into a penance, but not in the way that I expected.

"What does that say about me? I was supposed to be a trained psychological profiler," I vented somewhat petulantly. "Now that I can actually experience all the emotions that he felt when he was a child, I don't know how to cope with the feelings. I don't know how he deals with the feelings, let alone how he manages to keep up his different personas to prevent others from getting too close. He has amazing control, but it comes at a terrible cost."

Shannon nodded understandingly. "That's part of why so many GAs burn out when on DiNozzo duty," she comforts me gently. "And as to not seeing past his personas, I know that Jethro believes that he is one of the best operatives ever when it comes to undercover work. In a way Tony has been undercover most of his life, so he has had a lot of practice. Even when he is at work he is undercover as the clown, playboy, smart ass and jock. Very few individuals have ever made it past more than a few of his firewalls.

"And of course he is a natural profiler when it comes to reading people, too; adept at being able to deflect people when they get too close. With you, as much as he loves you, he was always able to divert you whenever you got too close by pushing your buttons. Knowing your strong feminist values and your Catholic upbringing, he threw chauvinistic and lewd comments at you to provoke your anger so you would be distracted and throw you off. It is why he also uses humour to put people off the scent. He has a pretty impressive arsenal to prevent anyone getting too close to him."

I nodded, knowing that Shannon spoke the truth, but still it was pretty galling to be suckered the way that I have been. I also pondered her observation about natural profiler. Perhaps that is one of the reasons he is such a talented investigator. Tony has this totally annoying ability to be able to charm information out of witnesses and suspects alike, as well as his ability to make intuitive leaps in logic and find connections which no one else can. _Note to self- check out his psychological evaluations after my break to see if he has been able to fool psychologists and psychiatrists, too, or if they saw through his various personas._

Meanwhile, I decided to ask Shannon about her working together co-operatively remark and she laughed. "Well, Jethro and Tony spend so much time watching each other's six and they both have a unique talent for annoying the crap out of dirtbags. They often get into trouble together or riding to each other's rescue and need to be watched closely. So you, Kelly and I are inevitably going to be working together a lot... Oh, just one thing, Cate... Has anyone explained that we are empathically linked in to our mortal's soul?"

I shook my head, not really sure what she was talking about. I knew what empathy meant, but an empathic link – sounds like something out of one of McGee's Star Trek movies. _Cree-py!_

Shannon pursed her mouth in thought as she tried to find the words to explain empathic linkage to me. "It's sort of like having an open telephone line to the person you are guarding, Cate, except that instead of having to listen or see them, you experience their emotions. I know that sounds very invasive for all concerned, but there is a sort of sensory adaption that takes place, like when you go into a crowded room for example and you can't hear an individual conversation. After a while the brain tunes out all the other conversations going on in the room except for the one you are concentrating on. Well, in this case, you learn to tune out all but the most intense of emotions so that both of you have some emotional distance, but you will be alerted immediately should Tony need your help."

It sounded weird to be linked in such a way to Tony, but now that I was aware of it, I could feel his constant anguish over my loss, even though I wasn't reviewing his dossier. My chest was so tight that I couldn't breathe, _well if I was alive that is, it would feel as if I wouldn't be able to._ I also felt this awful burning sensation in my gut, _okay DiNozzo's gut technically._ So, I guess it was a relief that I don't have to trail around 24/7 to keep Tony under supervision. I had an uncomfortable mental image of being a voyeur during Tony's bedroom antics, something I definitely did not want to watch. Trying to expunge those very disturbing images from my brain, I decided to go back and study more of Tony's file. Shannon smirked at me, as if she could read my thoughts.

"Believe me, I understand, Cate. I **so** don't want to be hanging out with Jethro when he is entertaining some Amazonian titian-haired goddess," she snorted. "I want him to find someone that makes him happy, but I don't want to have a front row seat. I've learnt to tune out the more intense experiences, so I'm sure it won't be a problem for you, Cate. I know your relationship with Tony wasn't romantic or sexual, but you were close. I think you will probably find it more of a problem to deal with the depth of his negative feelings. Despite appearances to the contrary, Tony has a very dark soul, which he recognises. I think that is one reason he acts like such a clown and he shuts people out. He's afraid he'll hurt those he loves."

I nodded in agreement as I considered just how hard it must have been for Shannon when Gibbs was with his three ex-wives. I wondered if Shannon was on duty when Gibbs' ex-wife number two clocked him one over his head with a golf club and what she did. **1.** Did she just have to stand by and let it happen? So, I headed off back to my own work space while I pondered the latter half of Shannon's comments about Tony's darkness. I decided that I was so not ready for any more harrowing details of Tony's childhood today, so I was going to explore Tony's educational background instead.

Preparing for a parade of teenage trysts and immature frat boy behaviour such as panty raids, it came as quite a nasty shock to know that once again he'd been hiding in plain sight. Several hours later I sat back in my seat and tried to reconcile what I'd learnt with the Tony that I know; or at least, who I thought he was. I remembered the envy that people at work have always felt about Tony's privileged existence, including McGee and I. Everyone assumed that he had everything that he ever wanted growing up and was just being a dilettante when it came to working at NCIS. Certainly his love of designer clothes reinforced that image.

Tony had told us that he had been sent away to a military prep school at the age of 12, but we never took him seriously. The idea of him attending Rhode Island Military Academy was unthinkable, and yet it was true. I discovered that Tony rarely returned to his family home during his schooling. He was sent away as a punishment for being rebellious. Apparently, failing to be sufficiently interested in his father's business interests was his crime at the tender age of 12, yet surprisingly, it seemed that Tony had flourished like a desert wildflower in the regimented environment. His academic achievements were impressive as were his athletic abilities, which seemed to help him focus his dark and self-destructive emotions, and he seemed to enjoy the benefits of some much needed structure, predictability and most importantly, some positive reinforcement for probably the first time in his life.

So, the mystery of Tony choosing a Physical Education degree was finally revealed as Tony had needed to pay his own way through college after refusing to go to his father's favoured Ivy Leagu eCollege to study business administration or corporate law. Given his high aptitude for a wide variety of sports, he was awarded a scholarship to play college football and basketball. While he did major in Physical Education, he chose to do a double major in psychology after taking some sport psychology courses and getting hooked, although these details are something he never mentions. In fact, he deliberately perpetuates the dumb but streetwise cop facade much too easily.

Apparently, Tony found out the hard way in his various jobs as a cop that being a jock from a moneyed family, combined with looks and intelligence, was just too intimidating and made him the target of less talented colleagues. Not just envy or hazing, but unfortunately being physically bullied on the job by co-workers, or just not having proper backup from partners who would hang back during violent arrests rather than watch his back. He had plenty of practice from his childhood and his years at a military academy in mental and physical hazing and intimidation, and was able to take the treatment without complaint. It certainly didn't do a whole lot for his ability to trust other people or encourage him to show them his real side, though.

Tony was also a target of jealousy at the Police Academy for his high aptitude and performance scores in firearms proficiency, drill and physical fitness. No doubt his proficiency was at least in part due to his years at RIMA combined with his athletic prowess, but it did create a lot of resentment that alienated him from the other candidates. Tony graduated top of his class, which is something else he studiously avoided mentioning when bragging about himself at work.

Just when I thought that my opinion of my professional and investigative skills couldn't get any lower, I found that I was wrong; it could and did! The final blow to my ego is the fact that DiNozzo has completed a Masters Degree in Criminology, which he needed to satisfy requirements for the Senior Field Agent position, and took electives that included content analysis, hostage negotiation and... oh... My... Goodness... Profiling! Just how dumb does that make me? I've been played by a master. How can I show my face to my new colleagues?

I thought back to a throw-away comment he'd made in anger when Gibbs had wanted me to use my profiling skills to identify the sniper who was taking out the Gunnery Sergeants who were recruiting candidates for the Marine Corps and Tony was beside himself at the prospect that he wouldn't be able to watch Gibbs' six. I remembered how he'd shouted out in frustration, "_you're not the only one that can profile, Cate." **2** _And I had brushed him off with a patronising response.

I think that The Powers That Be have made a huge error in thinking that I can watch over DiNozzo. I feel completely inadequate to watch over a pet rock let alone a chameleon like Tony.

End Notes

* * *

1. I learnt that particular tidbit about Gibbs and Diane Gibbs and their disturbing relationship dynamic when we were investigating the death of Lieutenant Commander Thomas Eagan. What started out looking like a case of espionage or even industrial espionage had ended up as just another case of a wife scorned. I wondered if Fornell had hidden Diane's golf clubs when he married Gibbs' ex-wife. He'd have to be a fool not to; of course, that was supposing that Gibbs told him about it. It also got me thinking about that charade between Gibbs and Fornell when they pretended not to recognise each other when I first met them on Air Force One. What the blazes was that all about anyway?

I recalled with a touch of wistfulness how playful Gibbs had been back then; teasing Tony and I. Him grinning as we joked about his ex-wife attacking him with a nine iron and my snarky profiler's crack about him refusing to talk to Diane about their problems obviously being responsible for her brain snap. His cheeky grin when he denied the claim and my surprise that he might actually talk about his feelings, until he'd quipped that it had been a seven iron and followed it up with a killer smile. That playful Gibbs had disappeared completely after Ari came into our lives, and it was tragic because it was just one more way that Ari Haswari had won the war long before he'd killed me.

2. I recalled the case of the sniper who'd targeted the Marine recruiters and how Tony had made it his mission to take down the dirtbag who dared to try and shoot Gibbs. His loyalty to Gibbs and the fact he had had to watch Gibbs' six from a distance had clearly distressed him, even though at the time I'd put it down to him not getting to dress up in a Marine uniform. I had teased him unmercifully about his undercover disguise, telling him he looked like one of the Village People. It wasn't until he'd gone off on a rant over the radio when he discovered that Gibbs had refused to wear a Kevlar vest that I started to realise just how seriously he took his role of protecting Gibbs and how much he genuinely cared about him.

In fact, in hindsight, thinking about how competently he'd wired that directional microphone into the DSL line and the other two mics onto a wireless relay to triangulate the bullet's trajectory while hanging ten feet up a power pole, I realised that Tony was way more technologically capable than he made out. When it was just the three of us on the team, he'd regularly take charge of setting up our computer communications and networks when in the field, how he'd confidently calibrated and easily operated ground penetrating radar when we went sneaking around in graveyards checking that a Marine was really in his casket, and programmed every new phone that Gibbs needed regularly after trashing his old one. It wasn't until Tim had joined the team that he'd started to act clueless around technology, and while he obviously wasn't in the same league as McGee, he was nowhere near as clueless as he pretended to be with the addition of the Probie.

He'd played us, but at least Probie had an excuse; I'd worked with him for a year and seen how he had handled technology and still he suckered me in, and how dumb did that make me? Not sure who I hated more; him for fooling me, or me for falling for it.


	3. Chapter 3

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS only the idea for this story is mine. I am making any money from it.

Beta: Arress has kindly offered to take on this monolith. Any errors are my bad of course.

Acknowledgements: Reviews are gratefully appreciated even if I can't always thank you all personally. Issuing a challenge to lurkers. I love hearing from you too so drop me a review or PM, it really is a completely painless process, pinky swear. Also thanks to those people who have already alerted and faved the Angel Series. Your support means a lot.

Author's note: Just a reminder that this series is obviously AU and some of Tony's background is not strictly canon although the continuity of canon by the screen writers remains somewhat hinky especially when it comes to a very special agent. This chapter in particular contains two events that are not canon and are speculation onwhat could explain some of our hero's flaws.

Series Summary: This is part of a three-way series called Anthony's Angels. It consists of Guardian Angel Caitlyn Todd, Guardian Angel Paula Cassidy and Guardian Angel Jenny Shepard. Every chapter in each series will be a stand -alone piece. A very brief précis of the trilogy series is that each of the former NCIS Agents have been appointed as Guardian Angels and been assigned to protect Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo because he is such a trouble magnet that he requires more supervision than the average mortal. The three former agents are chosen first and foremost for their prior connection to him, although other factors are also in play and will be revealed over time.

Angel Author's Note: This report is to the best of my ability and recollection, an accurate account of what occurred after Ari Haswari, decided to take my life to torture my boss Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs. My opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Guardian Angel Committee here at GA Central.

Chapter 3: Getting under my skin

Shannon is off somewhere doing something that she won't talk about, and she wanted me to watch over Kelly while she's gone, so I guess something is going on with Gibbs that she doesn't want Kelly exposed to. Before she left she muttered something about goats and steaks which didn't exactly make that much sense. Tony and the team are making preparations for flying out to Indiana to attend my Funeral, which is incredibly bizarre I must say.

I can feel the guilt rolling off Tony in waves, as well as his desire to catch Ari and make sure he never does this to anyone else. Apparently, Ari has managed to set things up to frame a young Middle Eastern terrorist for my death and the unsuccessful attempt to take out a whole pier of service personnel and their families. Ari is a master manipulator, that's for darned sure. It isn't just female federal agents trained as profilers that he can fool it seems.

I am really starting to like Shannon Gibbs; well, it's hard not to when she is so supportive of me. Her backing has been especially important as I try to deal with just how badly I have underestimated my former partner. This has certainly been a bitter pill to swallow. I guarded the US President and his security dossier was so comprehensive that J. Edgar Hoover would have been impressed by the amount of detail it contained, right down to preferred colour and brand of toilet paper. Certainly no nasty little surprises like I have discovered about my former partner, Tony DiNozzo, since ascending to the status of Probie Guardian Angel. He has more surprises up his sleeve than anyone I've encountered.

I know I have to continue to familiarise myself with Tony's file even though it is uncomfortable for me, as it exposes my inability to read him. Meanwhile, in my ear Kelly keeps up a constant stream of cheerful chatter about her Daddy and the rest of the team. It seems like she views all of Gibbs' team as surrogate siblings, which is pretty cute. Most children would be more likely to regard us with sibling rivalry, or maybe it is just when you ascend you get to leave such petty emotions behind.

Kelly shocked me more than a little when she announced with all the innocent insight of a child, "My Daddy was so sad when he lost Mommy and me, but now he is a lot happier because you are all like his new family." She smiled shyly. "So, can I be your real true-life sister, Cate?"

I smile at her and tell her I'd love to be her big sister. I come from a good Catholic family and will miss spending time with my sister and brothers so I am more than happy to adopt Kelly as one of my own. Kelly squealed and gave me a huge hug, excited as an only child could be to have an instant sibling. Her hugs reminded me a bit of an Abby hug and perhaps that's why she holds such a special place in Gibbs' affections.

She whispered in my ear, "I am so happy that you're looking after Tony because he's way too busy looking after everybody else to look after himself. You're gonna to be his best Guardian Angel evvver."

Seeing that I am feeling seriously challenged at the moment, I appreciate her belief in me because I am not so certain. She must have picked up on my unspoken question and my uncertainty because she spoke again.

"I just know that you are gonna look after him because you already did when he was in that blue room and he couldn't breathe properly. He never had anyone to love him and stay with him when he was sick before. Not even when he was hurt after his Daddy did bad things to him when he was little. He was all alone with just the doctors and nurses in the hospital and he was real sad and scared."

I look into her troubled blue eyes that are like a carbon copy of her Daddy's eyes, and I realise that I have to get over myself and start doing my job. Tony deserves a Guardian Angel that will stick with him even when the going gets tough. Tony was prepared to die in place of McGee and myself when Ari rigged that car to explode once we had started processing the evidence and he never expected recognition or thanks for his amazing acts of bravery. In fact, he seems genuinely uncomfortable when thanked, although I feel pretty embarrassed that neither McGee nor I properly thanked him for saving our lives from that car bomb. Okay, forget properly; we never thanked him at all, and I even gave him an elbow in the ribs, which was such a mean thing to do, nor did we express gratitude for the countless other times he has had our six. Well, I was going to change that right now and I gave Kelly a crushing hug for helping me out of my funk.

Thinking about what Kelly has said about Tony not having anyone to be there when he was sick or hurt, I decided to do some digging into his step-mothers. I was also curious as to how Tony's mother died, so I decided that I would focus on these factors to help me get more of a handle on DiNozzo's complexities and how his maternal figure shaped his development. Reading over more of Tony's file, it reveals some insights into how events have forged such a resilient yet fragile individual as Anthony DiNozzo. It seems that Tony was alone in the house with his mother when she died. His parents had yet another bitter drunken brawl, prompting his father to go off for several days, before being summoned by the police when his wife killed herself with an overdose of pills and alcohol. Tony, who was only eight at the time, had snuck into his mother's room during the fight and stolen her meds and hidden them in his own bedroom.

It was a task that he had performed many times before, as well as hiding bottles of alcohol from her or even tipping the alcohol down the sink to stop her getting sick and mean. I know from my college psychology coursework, that this is often the sad burden of children whose parents have substance abuse issues. Each time his mother found the pills he had hidden she would punish him, both with her hands and probably even more damaging for Tony, the lash of her tongue. When she didn't find her meds, she would simply have the family physician replace the prescription. Yet for all her faults, she could at times be incredibly loving and nurturing and her little son was fiercely protective of her.

The night she died after the final confrontation with Senior over his infidelity, she came to his room to search successfully for the pills he had hidden from her. Tony woke up to find her dead on the floor in his room with the empty bottle of pills clutched in one hand and an almost empty bottle of gin beside her. In the hours before the staff arrived at the family mansion, little Tony had tried to clean up his Mommy who was covered in vomit, urine and faecal matter, which wasn't an isolated occurrence either. He was used to doing this task for his mother, as well as many of the myriad of things that children of alcoholics learn to carry out for their parents, and even come to view as being normal. He had also placed his pillow under her head and his teddy bear under her arm while he cuddled up beside her.

I couldn't help losing it when I discovered these heart breaking facts of Tony's childhood, but it did go some way to explain why he hated taking any medications, especially pain medications. Not surprisingly, Tony's father with his money and connections managed to sanitise the investigation into her death and have it ruled as an accidental overdose. This tragedy also helps explain why Tony always manages to blame himself for things that are not his fault. In his eight-year-old eyes, if he had hidden his mother's meds in a better place she would have still been alive, so that made it his fault. Of course, having his father tell him his mother left him because he was such a disappointment certainly didn't hurt either in creating an individual that felt he was to blame, no matter what.

Feeling like I needed a break from so much terrible angst, I decided I wanted to hang out with my new little adopted sis who had promised to show me the gardens. Although the things I have discovered were emotionally draining and horrible, I know that what I've learnt goes a long way to explaining why Tony aspired to a career where he could save lives over the polo playing, aperitifs and cocktails swilling, narcissistic existence of the uber rich and idle. It also helps explain some of the origins and the depth of the dark emotions that dog him.

After a long break filled with the golden celestial light and childish, joyous laughter, visitations of butterflies and dragonflies of unearthly vibrancy and beauty, delicately scented blossoms and exotically perfumed blooms that grew with such abundance, and being caressed by the merest zephyr of a breeze that also rustled the verdant leaves of the trees, I am feeling restored and refreshed. Filled with gratitude for this little slice of heaven and for the loving acceptance of Kelly, I pledged to Tony that I am not going to give up on him just because the going got tough. Feeling almost strong enough to go back and discover what type of women DiNozzo Senior chose to replace Tony's mother with, I took a deep breath and headed back to my work space to finish the self imposed task that I set; hoping that what I discovered would be mundane.

Not surprisingly, Senior had a new wife moved into the estate within three months of Tony's mother Elizabeth's sordid demise. For the most part, the four women that he married during Tony's childhood were carbon copies of each other. Beautiful and vacuous creatures, who had married for money and lifestyle, they were not interested in mothering a young boy desperate for a modicum of affection or attention. Mostly they viewed him as nothing more than an inconvenience that was easily ignored. Some of the more avarice wives saw him as obstacle to their wealth.

The exception to the evil step-mom cliché was Alicia, the third of Senior's wives. She was also the youngest of all his wives and at 24 years of age, considerably younger than her husband and woefully unworldly, although her physical attributes explained Senior's attraction to her. She was a stunning lithe brunette with warm chocolate brown eyes. Tony was fourteen, almost fifteen at the time when she first arrived at the mansion. He was home from school during term break, which was a fairly rare occurrence. Alicia immediately hit it off with her new step-son and she seemed to prefer spending time with Tony rather than the society crowd that DiNozzo Senior cultivated in order to promote his business interests.

She discovered that Tony was great company and enjoyed horse riding and sailing in Senior's yacht; activities she enjoyed as well. He told himself that Alicia wouldn't stick around any longer than either of his previous step-moms or even the household staff which were regularly replaced and that he shouldn't get too close to her. Yet, he was so absolutely starved for affection that he couldn't help himself. Attention can be extremely addictive for someone who isn't used to receiving any.

Alicia's unhappiness at being little more than a trophy wife to Senior slowly began to eat away at the young woman's self esteem. Her less than warm welcome into the nouveau riche crowd left her isolated and alone. She increasingly found herself obsessed with the younger DiNozzo who even in his ugly duckling teenage years, though lanky and lacking in the musculature of his adult form, was unconsciously charismatic, not to say an exceptionally beautiful young man. It was probably inevitable given his childhood that Tony would lose his virginity to his young step-mother and he mistook her seductive lust for the love that he had always longed for.

Their liaison also inevitably came to the attention of Senior, and the ensuing nuclear strength explosion and marriage bust up was particularly violent and ugly. Tony was dispatched back to the military prep school on the day he was discharged from hospital with a broken ulna, bruised spleen and hairline fracture of the skull as a result of being flung across the room and colliding with the stone and ebony fireplace. He was devastated when Alicia never answered any of his letters, and the withdrawal of Alicia's love and affection actually hurt him much more than the physical injuries caused by his father. It was also the last time that he was allowed home between school terms.

Between his mother's illness, neglect, suicide and the sexual molestation that his young step-mom perpetrated against Tony (1) and her abandonment, I could now understand why he had such a fear of commitment. I always thought that the main reason why he dated younger women was because they weren't as likely to be looking to settle down, not to mention being more sexually adventurous. I can see now that thanks to Alicia, he is avoiding women that may be more mature, which he probably equates with all things maternal.

Poor Tony, I wish I could take back many of the cutting comments I've made about his dating habits. It is actually surprising that he is the caring individual that he is. I suddenly realise that his relationships with Abby and I are probably the first real relationships he has had with women, even though it isn't of the romantic variety. I can also better understand the depth of his despair over my death. Just like his mother, he was unable to prevent my death and that is why he is feeling such guilt and grief for someone he loved. And I know now that he did love me, maybe not romantically, but with the fierce protectiveness that develops between partners who have to watch each other's backs.

Tomorrow The Powers That Be are going to let their new Probie Guardian Angel out of the office for the first time to accompany Tony to ... well my funeral, which is going to be weird for me and agony for Tony. (2) While it will take a long time to work my way through Tony's file, I have one more area that I want check out before I head off back to earth tomorrow. Shannon and Kelly are going to come with me, which pleases me as it is going to be a strange experience to be able to see all my friends and family and yet not stop their pain. Before I go, I want to check out DiNozzo's psychological evaluations from his various police departments and NCIS. I guess I'm hoping that Tony has suckered the shrinks, too, and not just me!

I pull up Tony's various annual Psych Evals to see what the professional shrinks have written up about him in their reports over his career. Descriptors such as narcissistic, hyperactive, oppositional, evasive, ADHD, juvenile, misogynistic, obnoxious, in denial, sexually inappropriate behaviour, reckless, death wish, manipulative are littered throughout the various reports; from different shrinks who also haven't been able to see beyond the personas and behaviour that he uses to prevent anyone from getting close enough to see his dark and tortured side. Apart from the fact that none of them have managed to connect the dots of his torturous childhood, there is also a dearth of positive descriptors used by any of the shrinks, so I know that Tony has used his brash, obnoxious act to distract them from what he doesn't want people to see. It makes me feel better that Tony has used his own knowledge of psychology to thwart any accurate analysis of what makes him tick. Of course, unlike me, they didn't spend two years with him as their partner.

He also has enough knowledge of psychology to be able to give them answers to the questions that they want to hear. If you take into account his ability to act sad, contrite, angry or whatever else may be deemed appropriate after justifiable shootings or serious injuries, then it is easy to see why he manages to run rings around them. Although much of his studies were focused on behaviour, not therapeutic intervention, it seems as an adolescent he was compelled to attend a great many different therapists by his father and step-mothers. Not out of concern for his emotion well being, but for failing to comply with his father's expectations, so he has had plenty of practise at playing the therapy game. One particular therapist was engaged because Tony was too familiar with his father's staff and bought Christmas gifts for them all.

I realised that it is going to take a long time to unravel the complexities of one Anthony DiNozzo, but tomorrow is going to be a long and emotional day. I decided to take a break from Tony's file and see what else Kelly could tell me more about her Dad and Mom.

End Notes

1. Like his mother's death, the fact that his step-mother had a non-consensual relationship with a minor had been hushed up with the liberal application of money and calling in of favours. Just as Senior's assault upon his son seemed to be swept under the carpet, too.

2. My funeral is going to be held in my home town in Indiana where I will be laid to rest in the family plot and the team will be flying in on Sec Nav's Gulf Stream.


	4. Chapter 4

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS only the idea for this story is mine. I am making any money from it.

Beta: Arress has kindly offered to take on this monolith. Any errors are my bad of course.

Acknowledgements: Reviews are gratefully appreciated even if I can't always thank you all personally. Issuing a challenge to lurkers. I love hearing from you too so drop me a review or PM, it really is a completely painless process, pinky swear. Also thanks to those people who have already alerted and faved the Angel Series. Your support means a lot.

Author's note: Just a reminder that this series is obviously AU and some of Tony's background is not strictly canon although the continuity of canon by the screen writers remains somewhat hinky especially when it comes to a very special agent. This is a particularly angst laden chapter and if you are obsessively devoted to Leroy Jethro Gibbs you might want to glance away.

Series Summary: This is part of a three-way series called Anthony's Angels. It consists of Guardian Angel Caitlyn Todd, Guardian Angel Paula Cassidy and Guardian Angel Jenny Shepard. Every chapter in each series will be a stand -alone piece. A very brief précis of the trilogy series is that each of the former NCIS Agents have been appointed as Guardian Angels and been assigned to protect Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo because he is such a trouble magnet that he requires more supervision than the average mortal. The three former agents are chosen first and foremost for their prior connection to him, although other factors are also in play and will be revealed over time.

Angel Author's Note: This report is to the best of my ability and recollection, an accurate account of what occurred after Ari Haswari, decided to take my life to torture my boss Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs. My opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Guardian Angel Committee here at GA Central. Fair warning to anyone reading this report that there are opinions expressed in the body of this report that may be regarded as of a negative nature with regard to my former supervisor.

Angel Cate

Grief and Anger

Shannon and Kelly Gibbs had accompanied me on my first field assignment since my arrival at Guardian Angel Headquarters. I had to admit that it was a totally surreal experience, attending my own funeral, seeing my parents and my brothers all wracked with grief. The absence of Rachel my sister, who as a psychologist should darn well have known better than most people the importance of coming to my funeral, makes me worried for her. I'm not a psychologist, simply a profiler, but I knew how crucial it was for her to be able to grieve my loss, but just like a doctor, it was 'do as I say not as I do' when it came to her accepting that I was really dead. Obviously, she was still deeply in denial and I hope that she will be able to come to terms with my death sooner rather than later and not just subsume herself in work.

Then there was the additional pain of seeing friends and family, not to mention my teammates and colleagues, all in mourning over my death. Yet, as bad as that was, and it was bad, it was probably the empathetic link between Tony and myself that was the most difficult for me, as the true extent of his pain and grief was devastating and it made me feel unlike anything I've ever experienced before. Outwardly, he seemed quiet and withdrawn, but holding it together. The reality was a different kettle of fish and I wish that he'd simply let go and give in to the overwhelming pain he felt. My jaw felt like it had clamped shut with a vice as he ensured that he betrayed none of the terrible pain, grief and guilt that he felt. There was a weight in my chest that made it difficult to breathe, well if I was alive that was, and there was a huge lump lodged in my… er Tony's throat that had me longing for release. This empathy thing is hard to get accustomed to; it is so real that I can feel not just his emotions but the physical manifestations of the grief, and it isn't pleasant.

As I glanced over at Shannon Gibbs, it was clear that she was also being battered by the dark emotions emanating from Jethro Gibbs. I stared at my new friend and could see that she was also angry and upset about something, although Shannon shook her head and mouthed that we would talk about it later. Shannon had been missing until shortly before my funeral started, and although it helped to have Kelly holding my hand during this incredibly traumatic and confusing time, I felt as her newly adopted big sister, that I have to try and hold it together and not let her see how rattled this was making me. When Shannon finally showed up, her eyes were bright and fiery and she seemed distracted, and I wondered where she'd been and what she'd been doing. When Gibbs missed the funeral and showed at the graveside late, I figured she'd been watching out for him, but what could be so damned important to keep him from attending my funeral service and also tick Shannon off so badly?

After we headed home - it's weird to be calling the Guardian Angel HQ home - Shannon sent Kelly off to visit with friends so we could talk. All of a sudden I understood her muttering about stakes and goats. Gibbs had set himself up as bait for Ari Haswari, daring him to come and kill him and instead of trusting his team, or at the very least Tony, he'd gone off on his own with only a Mossad Officer who was Ari's handler, as backup; the same one who had sworn to Gibbs and the rest of the team that Ari was innocent, and went so far as to give him succor so he could evade detection, including false documents. Shannon was super peeved at Gibbs because she said that he was a fool for trusting someone he didn't know over someone that he trusted every day to watch his six. She also reckoned he was crazy since Ari's handler was clearly incompetent if she had no idea that Ari had turned. Trusting her to take the kill shot was beyond stupid, even for Jethro, as far as Shannon was concerned.

Shannon was beyond angry, and I could tell that there was more and it was bad. With a bit of prodding, she spilled the rest. The Mossad handler had taken the kill shot, but then Gibbs found out that Ziva was Ari's half-sister, and was also the daughter of the Deputy Director of Mossad. Now Gibbs felt both beholden to her and guilty for making her kill her brother, and it had triggered his thwarted paternal feelings. Worse still, however, was that Ziva's father had known all along about Ari and had instructed his daughter, Ziva, to take him out to ingratiate herself with Gibbs, and he'd been absolutely suckered in by their lies and deceptions, which could have been avoided if he'd trusted his partner.

I must say that I was shocked. It was a lot of data to have to take in at once, and I was at a loss to say anything comforting to Shannon. It was a real mess. I thanked her for reading me in on the situation, but she just smiled wryly, saying this could affect Tony, too. I needed some time alone to deal with everything Shannon had shared, and I was still very unsettled by my funeral today, and I could tell via the link that we now shared that Tony was struggling badly, too. Somehow being in close proximity seemed to intensify my experience of the link, or perhaps it was that knowing how he was feeling, subtle tells that would normally go over my head, now added confirmation, if it was required, of how much grief and guilt he struggled under. I slipped outside to the beautiful gardens that Kelly had shared with me, reveling in the serenity that surrounded the place that was used as a retreat by the Guardian Angels, and it had rapidly become one of my favourite places, too.

As I sat letting the gentle zephyrs caress my face, soothing my troubled spirits, I thought about what Shannon had told me about Ari's demise. While I was relieved that Ari would never be able to wreak any further terror and pain on anyone else or their families, I had expected to feel vindication or euphoria that he was going to be answering to a higher power for his crimes, but I didn't. I was more concerned that the method of his death would extract a bigger price than he deserved for the team that was like a second family to me. I wondered how Tony would deal with not being able to help apprehend my killer, knowing now the full depth of his guilt at not being able to prevent my death and his burning desire for revenge. He may hide it well, but the feelings run very deep, and given that he'd felt my still warm blood splatter all over his face when I died, I guess such strong feelings shouldn't be a surprise

Disturbingly though, there was another emotion bubbling up inside that I had no trouble identifying. It was anger, my anger; it was pure unadulterated fury, and instead of feeling this rage at Ari who had taken my life, and tried to kill Abby and McGee as well, I found myself cursing out my old boss. How could he be so damned stupid, so criminally insane as to set himself up as bait with some Mossad officer he didn't know from Job? What the Hel… er devi… er what the heck did he think he was doing? Did my life, my sacrifice, mean so little to him that he would be so cavalier to risk his life just because he felt guilty about me dying while on protection detail, doing my job and watching his six? The more I thought about it, the angrier I got.

When Shannon found me, she knew I was really upset. She took me into her arms and gave me a motherly hug, which seemed weird because she looked younger than me, even if she would have been roughly Gibbs' age if she'd lived. She stared at me intently before sighing and forcing me to sit and instructing me to spill.

"I know today has been a really difficult day for you, Cate. How are you doing?"

I tried to do a DiNozzo, prattling on about how weird it was to see everyone, including my parents, crying over my coffin, and how Tony was not dealing with his feelings and trying to just suppress them all the time. Shannon would have made a great interrogator or a therapist because she didn't say a word; she just kept waiting with a look on her face that told me that she knew there was more. As much as I tried to deflect her attention, she just kept giving me that look that said she wasn't buying any of it.

Finally I caved, telling her how furious I was feeling because I felt like Gibbs had thrown my sacrifice back into my face since I'd taken a bullet for him. I railed against his stupidity in setting himself up as bait and not taking Tony with him to watch his six and instead trusting Ari's handler, who he didn't know, and how it would have just cheapened my death if he had thrown away his life out of guilt. I wanted to smack him down hard for not letting Tony help and for robbing him of a sense of closure when he had also been there on the roof when Ari put that bullet in my brain. After I vented, I became really uncomfortable and realized I was finding fault and slandering her beloved husband, so I apologized.

Shannon snorted inelegantly. "Don't apologise, Cate."

"Yeah, I know, Shannon; it's a sign of weakness," I recited obediently.

"Darn stupid Rule Six. I wish I'd never taught Gibbs the rules."

"Wait, you taught Gibbs the rules? He's always made it sound that they were all his own creation or at the least, something he learned in the Corps.

"Well, yeah, Cate I know that he likes to pretend that they're his. Of course, Jethro borrowed a few from Mike Franks, including that idiotic Rule Six, and added a few of his own, especially the ones relating to lawyers; how that man hates lawyers, but after three divorces I guess that's understandable. However, I introduced the rules to Jethro when we first met." Shannon smiled and it was clear she was remembering those early days together.

Shannon shook herself out of her reverie and stared at me seriously, telling me that I didn't need to apologise for being angry with Gibbs, because she was just as furious with the big dumb lug head herself; said she'd like nothing more than to smack him upside the head, repeatedly. She made me feel a lot better about dumping all that anger on her, and she smiled at me with empathy before drawing me into another warm motherly hug that effectively took down all my defenses, especially when she called me sweetie just like my mom used to do, and I started to sob. I realized that it would be a long while before I got to feel my mom's hugs again.

It all came flooding out. All the anger, all the regrets, all the guilt and grief, all the coulda, shoulda, woulda, all the 'what ifs' and the 'if onlys' came pouring out of me as if I had emotional diarrhoea and it spewed forth without sign of a letup. Finally, she held me at arm's length and gave me a stern look, while wiping the tears from my ravaged face and tucking my hair behind my ear. The loving gesture was what undid any resolve I might have had to keep my dark thoughts to myself. The ones I hadn't even been aware of feeling.

"Honey, that's not all of it, is it?"

I felt like she had poured a bucket of ice cold water on top of me because that was all of it wasn't it? Yet, once she uttered the thought, I couldn't let it go and looked at her in amazement that she knew better than I did how much anger was residing in me. So much, in fact, I was suppressing it because it was so big, so disloyal, so unthinkable, that I couldn't deal with the emotions and thoughts; yet a simple word from Shannon was all it took for it to come rushing to the surface of my consciousness, refusing to be silenced. It was overwhelming and I couldn't have censured the feelings and thoughts which burst forth if I tried.

So, I didn't even try. I yelled at Gibbs for having to always have the last word. For being so bent on retribution that he'd never bothered to consider how his fury might impact on others. How by refusing to follow orders to back off Ari and leave him alone, he'd still had to go and put a bullet in Ari as payback for shooting Gerald and himself, and that had obviously created such deep-seated anger and animosity in Ari that it had inevitably escalated the feud between them. How Gibbs' unrelenting desire for vengeance had made him drive everyone on the team into the ground with exhaustion and left him incapable of acting rationally.

How Fornell lost two agents that day when Ari took us hostage in Autopsy and been angry when he'd found that The Powers That Be had directed that Ari not be pursued or held accountable for his killing and injuring federal agents and agency personnel. How in spite of his personal feelings, he'd followed orders and hadn't antagonized the assassin, unlike Gibbs, who arrogantly believed that Fornell didn't have the balls to avenge his fallen agents or didn't care as much about his people as he did.

How I knew I'd screwed up badly by not taking Ari out when I had the chance, and my anger that he'd managed to fool me, a trained profiler not once but twice, which was deeply embarrassing. How I was willing to accept partial blame, but that Gibbs was also guilty of fanning the flames by entering into a bitter blood feud with a sociopath. The profiler in me was screaming that while Ari was a deeply disturbed individual who was always heading for a massacre and needed to be taken down hard, my death had had nothing to do with his lunatic plans to destroy innocent lives and everything to do with making Gibbs suffer.

Taking my life had been extremely personal, as had the attempt to take out our team with a car bomb and Abby in her lab, and only by the grace of God and Tony's quick thinking and reflexes coupled with his inability to take time off when sick, Ari would have succeeded. He'd wanted to make Gibbs suffer in the worst way possible, and I really wanted to know if the instant gratification that Gibbs must have felt when he got the final word that day by putting a bullet in Ari's shoulder and walking away with the final word in the morgue when they confronted each other again, was worth the price I'd paid. Was worth the price the team almost paid and the pain that they would have to deal with due to my murder. Worth the pain he had to live with, too.

I called Gibbs every name that I could think of, even those ones that my brothers had taught me and the nuns at the convent school I'd attended had washed my mouth out with soap for using. I wanted to be down in the NCIS gym, beating the poo out of the punching bag with a picture of Gibbs and Ari on it as I relieved my wrath on those two architects of my demise. I wanted Ari to pay, to suffer, and part of me felt like he had gotten off far too lightly, even if he ended up in the fiery depths of Hell. In the end, I ran out of words and ended up expressing my pain and rage in an unworldly keening that freaked me out, even as I felt a giant weight beginning to lift from my shoulders. Finally drained, I realized that I was still being held in the protective and tender embrace of Shannon Gibbs, the wife of the man I had just screamed my rage at, and she was just watching me calmly with a look of compassion and regret on her beautiful features.

"I am so, so sorry, Shannon. I had no idea that I was hiding all of that stuff. How did you know when I didn't?"

Shannon smiled at me. "Mother's instinct maybe, and don't apologise for your feelings. They aren't right or wrong, they just are, and deserve to be recognized and expressed so you can move on. You've suffered a terrible loss, Sweetie, and I'm sorry that you had to pay the price for Jethro's single-minded, stubborn pursuit of vengeance. There's a difference to being killed in the line of fire."

I stared at her, once again thinking how she would have made a great therapist, but wondering at the underlying anger that leaked through when she mentioned her husband's quest for revenge. So, once again I expressed my regret at making her the fulcrum of my emotional angst.

Shannon gave me the strangest smile and assured me that it wasn't a problem. That she felt similar anger at him succumbing to his dark desire to claim vengeance when someone hurt those people he owned. Then she shocked me when she admitted that it wasn't the first time that Gibbs had taking the law into his own hands and surrendered his rigorous moral code that was part Gibbs and part the Marine Corps that had trained him. That he had yielded to the most base of emotions when he sought revenge on the drug baron dirt-bag that was responsible for the deaths of Kelly and her. She saw my shocked expression and laughed somewhat bitterly, saying that in spite of his weakness she still loved him, although she still wanted to kill him for being so damned stupid.

Shannon chewed on her lip as she confessed that with the exception of one individual who had been convinced that he'd murdered Hernandez after he'd killed Kelly and Shannon because she was going to testify against him in a murder trial, Gibbs had seemed to have gotten away scot free with murder. Tears welled up in her eyes as she grasped for my hand before admitting, "but there's one thing I know, Catey –girl; heck, known it long before I became a Guardian Angel. Vengeance always comes back to bite you on the butt, even if it takes a lifetime. There's gonna be a price to be paid for what Jethro did in avenging our deaths and it scares me so much that it could be innocent people like you that have to pay the price for Jethro's mad bloodlust. I'm sorry if it cost you your life, Cate; you didn't deserve to die, even if you did make a mistake. It shouldn't have cost you your life, and I just hope that Jethro doesn't end up paying the ultimate price for doing what he did. I always thought that we would always be reunited with him one day, but I don't know if that will ever come to pass.

Shannon burst into deep pain wracked sobs and it was my turn to take her into my arms and rock and croon to her, seeking to comfort her, to reassure her that everything would be alright, when in reality I had no idea if it would. To say I was appalled to hear that Gibbs had cold bloodedly stalked and killed Shannon and Kelly's killer, to seek revenge rather than justice, had shaken me fundamentally. He had become judge, jury and executioner, and that was usurping the Almighty's role, which in good faith I could never condone. I had always considered him to be a man of rare honour, and I wondered how he could reconcile his own behaviour with his relentless pursuit of wrong doers when he wore his NCIS cap.

I shook my head, knowing that this contradiction, this dichotomy of personality traits and moral codes, was not one that I could hope to resolve any time soon. In fact, I wasn't sure who was more emotionally devastated at the moment, Shannon or me. Smirking somewhat, I figured it was a tie, but at the very least we had each other for support.

"C'mon, Shannon; it's time to go and see what Kelly is doing. I think we could both do with a hug from your daughter right about now," hoping that her innocence and joie de vivre would soothe our jaded and cynical spirits as only a child could.


	5. Chapter 5

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS only the idea for this story is mine nor I am making any money from it.

Beta: Arress has kindly offered to take on this monolith, so thank-you so much. Any errors are my bad of course.

Acknowledgements: Reviews are gratefully appreciated even if I can't always thank you all personally. Issuing a challenge to lurkers; I love hearing from you too so drop me a review or PM, it really is completely painless. Also thanks to those people who have already alerted and favourited the Angel Series. Your support means a lot.

Summary: This is part of a three-way series called Anthony's Angels. It consists of Guardian Angel Caitlyn Todd, Guardian Angel Paula Cassidy and Guardian Angel Jenny Shepard. Every chapter in each series will be a stand alone piece. A very brief précis of the trilogy series is that each of the former NCIS Agents have been appointed as Guardian Angels and been assigned to protect Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo because he is such a trouble magnet that he requires more supervision than the average mortal. The three former agents are chosen first and foremost for their prior connection to him, although other factors are also in play and will be revealed over time.

Angel Author's Note: This report is to the best of my ability and recollection, an accurate account of what occurred after Ari Haswari, decided to take my life to torture my boss Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs. My opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Guardian Angel Committee here at GA Central.

Anthony's Angels: Guardian Angel Caitlyn Todd

Snips and Snails and Puppy-dog Tails

It was a day and a half since we had returned from attending my funeral in Indiana. My old team was still off the roster on compassionate leave and Tony was struggling with his grief and misplaced guilt while I was feeling wrung out after my emotional breakdown after the funeral. Shannon was clearly fraught as well; her confession that she feared her beloved Jethro may forgo his place by her and Kelly's side for eternity was not something that I or anyone else could really reassure her about. Gibbs had done so much good in his career as a Marine and an NCIS agent, but still there were some things that couldn't be condoned, and as I was discovering, for every action there was a consequence.

Luckily as we both battled our inner demons, Kelly was there with her love and laughter, pranks, prattle and mischief, and I couldn't help thinking about how well she would get along with Tony, the perpetual child. Of course, now that I understood that Tony's joie de vivre was a result of his trying to seize happiness rather than brooding about his childhood and less than stellar parentage, I was much more tolerant. I finally understood that he was making up for lost time and was having a childhood now, which he'd never had the opportunity to have when he should.

Shannon and I were both sitting in the sunlight watching Kelly run around the gardens and chase hummingbirds and dragonflies, and we were all captivated by the prismatic light that danced around her head. I had accused Tony of being an X-rated Peter Pan and now watching Gibbs and Shannon's daughter, I mused that my newly adopted little sister also was destined to have those self same Peter Pan-like qualities, too, courtesy of her untimely death, although obviously she retained an innocence that DiNozzo had lost a heck of a long time ago. (1) Although he has a childish enthusiasm for life, there remains not too far from the surface, a hard pragmatism, too. Still, I can see a little better why Gibbs, even an embittered and grief repressed version of Kelly's dad, might have found solace in Tony's inability to stay still and the zest that he had for even the simplest things, like kids' sugary cereal. He probably reminds him of his daughter.

I remember the occasional half smile I noticed when Gibbs thought no one was watching him when Tony was clowning around or the wistful expression when we pulled an all-nighter in the office and Tony fell asleep at his desk. There was something disturbingly vulnerable and angelic about him when he was asleep, and Gibbs would watch him with an almost fond expression on his face in unguarded moments. Was he thinking about his sweet angel when he watched Tony, or was he a surrogate of sorts? Goodness knows, it is apparent that his feelings are more than simply a supervisor for a colleague, even if he has the strangest way of showing it. Poor Tony most of the time seems to feel like a performing seal, trying to get the simplest of acknowledgements for all he does for Gibbs.

I tried my darndest to get Gibbs to admit that he does care about Tony, but the stupid, stubborn idiot refused to acknowledge what Blind Freddy could already see… well, apart from Tony, of course. I think that he has been so badly damaged by his pitiful excuse for parents that he cannot comprehend anyone caring about him without conditions. The ironic thing is though, that even if he has trouble accepting love from others, it was also what he craves more than anything; unconditional love and acceptance for the individual he is beneath all his guises.

For Tony, he can only conceive that his team might care about him if he is worthy enough, strong enough, good enough at his job, which experience in the form of his father had taught him, which he could never be. He'd instilled in his sensitive son a warped ideology of what made him worthy enough, which involved him being strong and teaching him that a real DiNozzo didn't pass out, cry for heaven's sake or show vulnerability because it made him weak. Even his father's ideas of success were all superficial or materialistic, and yet despite the messed up values with which he'd been imbued, there was a streak of uncompromising strength and humanity in my ex-partner who was now also the mortal entrusted into my care.

As I sat there lost in my musings, I hadn't noticed the deep depression and dark thoughts had lifted from the background that I had come to view as the link to Tony which let me watch his six without turning creepy stalker guardian angel 24/7. While it was nice to have some respite from the angst, the problem was that it was if my blood… well, Tony's blood, was fizzing and bubbling through my/his veins and I was feeling giddy and joyous and oh my goodness, no! Please no! Tell me this wasn't what I thought it was.

Shannon glanced over at me curiously. "Are you alright, Cate? You look spooked, girl. What's wrong?"

I shook my head, blushing bright red like a tomato. "Um, it's Tony, Shan. He's got all these 'feel good' neurotransmitters flooding through him at the moment. It feels like I have champagne in my veins, which is silly as I don't have veins or blood, and it definitely feels weird, like I'm drunk. Is this what it feels like for guys?"

"What what feels like, Catey-girl?"

I squirmed, embarrassed. I really didn't want to be having this conversation with Shannon. Even though she looks younger than me, it feels a bit like she is a surrogate Mom and there's no way I would be having this conversation with my mother.

"You know. IT!"

Shannon smirked and raised a well shaped eyebrow. "I guess so, honey, but just in case, you really have to go and check on Tony. Make sure he is truly okay."

"Eww, no, Shannon. I don't need to watch him. I heard enough in the bull pen. I have no desire to actually see IT with my own eyes. I'm not a sick, pervert Angel," I protested.

"Actually, trust me, Cate; you have to see this at least once. It goes with the territory, I'm afraid. Anyway, you can't tell me honestly that you haven't wondered, haven't been just the slightest bit curious? Get it over and done with and the next time it will be much easier to cope with." She smiled a little secret smile.

How the heck can I lie to her, considering who we are and where we are? Of course I've wondered, and the blush is no longer confined to my face, but has become suffused over my upper torso. This was so mortifying and yet if Shannon says I must do it, then I guess I have to trust her. She's had a lot more experience than me. I meant as a Guardian Angel!

"How, Shan? Can you come with?"

"Not this time, Sweetie, it's time for your first solo angel visit. Just close your eyes and focus on going to Tony."

My eyes screwed tightly shut, I found myself out in the sunlight. Honestly, I always said DiNozzo was a pig, but really? What an exhibitionist and barely a day after I have been laid to rest. Maybe he's not so cut up about me as I thought.

"Come on, Tony, you can go harder," I heard him say.

I so didn't want to know that DiNozzo indulges in self coaching talk while he's doing IT. I am beyond grossed out right now and I cannot see a good reason why I had to come here and be subjected to Tony's conquests, even if it makes a nice change from all the tension, guilt and grief I've/he's been experiencing. Surely, I can't begrudge him a little happiness, can I? I finally opened my eyes a fraction to see what bimbo he decided to use as a distraction from his pain. Instead of a well-endowed blonde or brunette engaging in, ah, lascivious acts, Tony was seated on a park bench throwing an old tennis ball for Toni, my Jack Russell terrier that I ended up adopting after Gibbs killed her owner when he tried to kill the entire team. (2) She raced after the ball he threw and brought the ball back and dropped it at his feet and then waited with her tongue lolling out all over her muzzle for him to throw it again.

Such a simple act was bringing so much joy to them both and I was a little shocked, because Tony had never seemed comfortable around dogs and children and here he was, looking after Toni and actually playing with her. Toni even seemed to like DiNozzo, and maybe it was because this Tony wasn't hiding from her like he did around people. Watching them play together, I decided that one good thing about being a jock was that he could throw the ball a darn sight harder and further than I ever managed and Toni was tuckered out way sooner than when I used to take her to the park to play. She brought the ball back one last time and then leapt up and wiggled her cute little butt up next to Tony's thigh and laid her front paws across his legs, before laying her head on her paws coquettishly as she watched him closely.

Suddenly she sat up, air scenting enthusiastically before looking over at me and eyeballing me, her fur piloerect along her neck and she started to howl with a creepy other worldliness that made Tony's skin tingle. I was sure that she knew I was there, could see me, but also knew that there was something wrong with me, and it made me sad that I couldn't hug her and say goodbye.

His hand snaked out and rubbed her head gently. "Hey, Girl, you miss her, too, don'tcha? And today it's like she's really here with us, ya know? I can almost feel her. At least you're not on death row anymore though, Toni. I'm sorry you had to spend time in that horrible place. If I'd known, I would never have let you rot in there, Babe." He stood up placing her gently on the ground. "C'mon, let's go home and get you something decent to eat."

He reached out and clipped a candy pink diamanté leash on the terrier that I hadn't seen before, and I wondered where her stuff was? Have to say I would never have expected DiNozzo to be seen dead with such a girly leash, but I guess I shouldn't have been surprised since he was actually nothing like what I thought he was.

I followed Tony human and Toni canine home to his apartment and watched in amusement as he stopped off at his mustang and retrieved a huge duffle bag and gently dumped the terrier into the bag. He zipped it almost all the way up before haring up the stairs to his apartment and swiftly freed the small dog from the bag before disappearing into the kitchen. Toni trotted after him and watched with interest as he pulled some prime beefsteak and liver out of a gourmet designer dog food container, placing it into a swanky dog bowl. Seemed like DiNozzo had been busy buying up doggy accessories, and I wondered again what happened to all the doggy accoutrements I'd purchased when I took her in.

After she'd eaten, they wandered into the living room, and I was shocked when Toni flopped down on the soft leather sofa beside DiNozzo. I was expecting him to have a brain fart, but he reached over and drew her onto his lap and stroked her gently as Toni sighed contentedly. With his right hand, my partner reached out to the coffee table and snagged a photo album off the highly polished surface. Balancing the album on his knee in front of the dog, he smiled sadly and pointed to a photo.

"That's the first crime scene that Cate worked and she turned up in high heels and a business suit in the middle of the night. Gibbs gave her a pair of boots and an NCIS cap and ordered her to put them on. Then there was the look on her face when she saw the Marine on a night training parachute jump who'd landed right through the roof of the SUV onto a couple of horny teenagers. (3) It was absolutely priceless, Toni, like she thought it was some gigantic hoax. And Ducky, examining the body while on top of the step ladder." He started laughing uncontrollably.

"That was a pretty memorable case all round actually, if ya consider me getting chucked out of a plane in darkness memorable. Don't tell anyone, Girl, but until my chute opened, my bladder and colon were seriously thinking about a spontaneous evacuation."

He moved to another photo and started laughing. "And this is Cate on Spring Break at college down in Panama City in a wet T-Shirt competition. I always knew that her Miss Goody-Two Shoes act was just that. Oh, man, Toni, was she pissed when I came back with that photo. And she sure was one mean dudette when crossed. I couldn't shower at work for months without having to fend off guys either copping a feel or hazing me for being gay after she and Abby photo-shopped that stupid gay cowboy photo. (4) Still, Toni, I can't whine seeing Catey's dead and I'm not." He wiped a solitary tear away and picked up a new photo.

I cringed when I heard that, and I know how the hazing would have been pretty bad. Heck, I'd done my far share of hazing Tony when he'd made out with a woman that turned out to be a guy on a murder investigation. Maybe that was why he had been so upset when I constantly ribbed him about it. Of course, I guess I'd be upset about kissing someone who'd turned out to be the killer of a good friend, too. (5)

"See, Toni, this one was taken at the annual baseball game the first year that Cate joined the team and we beat the crap out of Fornell's FBI team, which put Gibbs into a good mood for a whole week. He smiled three times that week, which is a record I think. Cate ate four hotdogs after the game, although she swore it was only two. Sure, she ate that tofu wrap crap, but when she pigged out on junk food, she really went to town."

I'd like the official Guardian Angel record here to reflect that I actually only ate two full hot dogs. I may have finished off over half of Abby and Gerald's hot dogs, but as they weren't mine, I don't believe they can be held against me. It's just that as disgusting as those frankfurters were, so filled with nitrates and garbage, they were a weakness that I can blame on a childhood going to games with my dad and brothers.

"And look, someone snapped this one when we were down at the gun range with Gibbs and he made her tape her PDA to the target. This was taken when she realized she'd shot it up and she hadn't backed up the data." He giggled remembering how peeved I'd been with Gibbs that day. (6)

Meanwhile, Tony continued to make his way through the album of photos, sharing them with my dog, sometimes laughing over the good times we'd shared, sometime lost in sadness as he tried to process all the emotions he was feeling. I was morbidly fascinated with the photos that he kept of the team. Many of the photographs were taken at crime scenes and were ones he'd snapped himself. Some were funny or unflattering, but many were candid shots taken of the team when we were unaware that he was snapping pictures of us, and he managed to capture some brilliant character studies of everyone. He was actually quite a talented photographer.

Finally, he put the album down and stared at the small dog blissed out on his lap, and his face filled with sorrow. "You know, Toni, I would keep you if I could, but my building doesn't allow pets. I had to bribe the Super just to let you stay here for a week or two. And I had to promise to smuggle ya in and out in the duffle bag so none of the neighbours catch on. Don't worry though, cuz I found you a wonderful new home with my friend, Dot. She loves dogs and fosters them, but Dot's gonna give you a home forever. I'll pay for your expenses so you don't have to worry that you'll end up in a kill shelter ever again."

He watched the little dog stretch and wiggle her butt as his fingers worked their way across her back bone before gently extending down her tail, stretching it out. I swear if she'd been a cat, Toni would be purring by now she was so completely boneless with delight. What a total hussy!

Tony frowned a little before continuing, "So, Dot's gonna take you to live out in the boonies, Babe, just as soon as she gets back from a visit with her grandkids next week, and I'll come and visit you sometimes. It'll be fine. She knows heaps more about dogs than I do and can give you a much better life than I ever could. Hell, most of the time I'm never here, so even if the building did allow dogs, I'd be a crap owner, Girl."

He sighed sadly and via the empathetic link, I could tell that he was remembering how all his pleading for a puppy or a kitten when he was a child always ended up with his parents' wrath brought down on his head, and his utter loneliness which even the kindliness of their servants couldn't fill.

Noticing that Toni had picked up on his sadness and was whining and trying to lick his face, he shook himself out of childhood memories. "C'mon, Babe, let's check out your new doggy duds."

He picked up several bags from some place called Paw Couture and proceeded to drag out an aubergine coloured doggy slicker and rain boots, and oh my gosh, a matching collar and leash. In the other bag were several lambs wool and alpaca mix doggy sweaters in sky blue and fuchsia pink because, he explained to the terrier, it got mighty cold in the wilds of Virginia during the winter. Expecting Toni to growl at him when he tried the slicker and boots on the Jack Russell, I was gob smacked to see Toni lapping up all the attention like a ditzy Chihuahua or teacup poodle. Dang, the terrier was practically preening, but then DiNozzo had a way with choosing clothes for women and making them feel special. I recalled somewhat uncomfortably how I would always seek his approval and advice when we needed to go undercover, and I had to admit he did have good taste. Well, except that time on the case where we needed to get a DNA sample for Ricky Napolitano to help clear Fornell, who was Gibbs' frenemy. (7)

I finally left the pair curled up together watching a Sean Connery pile of James Bond DVDs and DiNozzo explaining the complexities of the genre to the sleepy canine. I wished that they could stay together because I think that she would have been really good for Tony, and it made me sad that he still didn't get to have his much longed for puppy.

Of course, Shannon was waiting for me when I returned to Guardian Angel HQ with that same secret smile on her face.

"Must have been pretty darn hot, Cate, since you've been gone for hours. You decided you're into the whole voyeurism kink now, my girl?" She teased me.

"You knew, didn't you, Shannon?" I pouted.

She laughed unashamedly. "Yeah, I did, Cate, but you were just so damned funny that I couldn't help pulling your leg. I sort of get why Tony did it so much," She giggled girlishly. "It looks like the visit did you some good. I thought you could do with a break after yesterday." She gave me a hug and I thought about how much I missed Abby's breath stealing squeezes.

"So, how did you know that Tony had rescued, um, Toni?" I asked.

She exchanged a conspiratorial glance with me. "It seems my daughter has developed a huge case of hero worship for our Tony. She's kind of been stalking him. She always kept close tabs on you all because you're like siblings to her, but Tony is like a really cool, brave big brother, super-hero. Don't tease her, but she has a crush on him. You know the DiNozzo charm."

Yeah, I certainly did, and I was glad that I'd spent the day with DiNozzo and Toni. It was just what we all needed, and I wasn't even sorry that I'd let the cat out of the bag, or perhaps that should be dog. It hadn't escaped my attention that he whispered as I was going, "Miss ya heaps, Catey."

Endnotes

1. That X-rated Peter Pan insult was pretty much the last one I'd bestowed on Tony before Ari shot me, and it was his Peter Pan-like nature that had made him so bored at home that he'd come back while still recovering from the plague one week earlier than he was supposed to.

2. David Runyon was a dirtbag with a record of violence and assault, and he'd killed Marine Sergeant William Moore because he'd complained about him making too much noise at the campsite they were sharing. When we went to arrest Runyon for murder, he opened fire on us in the agency sedan with a semiautomatic, riddling it with bullet holes. Since he'd resisted arrest and had us pinned down in the middle of the field, Gibbs had whistled Toni out of the trailer and then fired on the butane gas cylinder, taking out the trailer and Runyon with it. I don't think Toni exactly shed many tears over the loss of her master.

3. Tony was right enough. Of course, I was always destined to remember my very first case with NCIS regardless, but as Tony said, to find a dead Marine impaled through the roof of an SUV and terrifying the living day lights out of a couple of kids parked under a tree, was certainly a bizarre case. Also, watching how Tony finagled the necessary instruction in how to parachute jump during the course of Sergeant "Thumper" Fuentes' death investigation was certainly an education in his resourcefulness, despite Gibbs' ire. His determination certainly paid off when he was shoved out of the plane that night without warning, luckily with a parachute.

4. It had started out innocently enough as the usual banter between the two of us when I let slip the nickname he'd been given at college. For some reason, the nickname seemed to send Tony completely feral and it was then he revealed he had a copy of a photo of me during a wet T-shirt competition, even though I'd been criticizing him harshly for watching them, which made me an utter hypocrite. He'd had it for several weeks and probably wouldn't have done anything about it, but after me shouting his pledge name to everyone in the bull pen, he'd seen red. Instead of apologizing to him, I had to up the ante and enlisted Abby's help to take a raunchy photo of leather bound gay cowboys and Photoshop Tony's head onto the photo, which obviously fell into the wrong hands. And I accused him of being juvenile!

5. This was the investigation into Special Agent Chris Pacci's death. He'd been looking into a cold case regarding the death of Naval Lieutenant Commander Voss and the disappearance of a substantial sum of money. Chris' POI was this incredibly attractive woman called Amanda Reid who, long story short, ended up also being Lieutenant Commander Voss, who was also Pacci's murderer. Reid/Voss put the moves on Tony, who was playing along trying to find out what the connection was between them. When he found out the truth that he'd been kissing a guy, we never let him forget it, and I particularly enjoyed rubbing his nose in it every chance I got.

6. That day on the gun range when Gibbs was doing his darndest to foster competition between us, Tony and I actually bonded over our desire to get even with Gibbs when he forced us to use our gear as hostages on the targets. I lost a perfectly good PDA because the warranty didn't cover bullets that were inflicted by a harassed owner because of a boss who was a self confessed bastard. Who knew! Tony also ruined an NCIS cap that he'd spent three months breaking in. When I vowed to avenge my PDA by burning Gibbs' boat, Tony had quipped that my suggestion was cold and he knew there was a reason why he liked me.

7. Tony and I had gone undercover as a really dysfunctional couple wanting a DNA test to discover the paternity of my imaginary baby, so we could sneak a peak at a Mafia Don's son's, Ricky Napolitano, DNA sample to try and match it to a murder victim. He'd had several paternity tests and the info was on file at the clinic, and knowing Gibbs' pathological hatred of waiting for a subpoena, we'd opted for an end run instead. We'd posed as this awful parody of a trailer trash couple who was so outrageous that we were distracting, and the clothes we wore were definitely in very bad taste, and I had a ball. It gave me a taste of why Tony finds undercover work such a challenge, even if it was a totally non-threatening scenario. It seemed that picking appropriate clothes for his undercover ops was a legitimate skill, too.


	6. Chapter 6

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS only the idea for this story is mine nor I am making any money from it.

Beta: Arress has kindly offered to take on this monolith, so thank-you so much. Any errors are my bad of course.

Acknowledgements: Reviews are gratefully appreciated even if I can't always thank you all personally. Issuing a challenge to lurkers; I love hearing from you too so drop me a review or PM, it really is completely painless. Also thanks to those people who have already alerted and favourited the Angel Series. Your support means a lot.

Summary: This is part of a three-way series called Anthony's Angels. It consists of Guardian Angel Caitlyn Todd, Guardian Angel Paula Cassidy and Guardian Angel Jenny Shepard. Every chapter in each series will be a stand alone piece. A very brief précis of the trilogy series is that each of the former NCIS Agents have been appointed as Guardian Angels and been assigned to protect Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo because he is such a trouble magnet that he requires more supervision than the average mortal. The three former agents are chosen first and foremost for their prior connection to him, although other factors are also in play and will be revealed over time.

Angel Author's Note: This report is to the best of my ability and recollection, an accurate account of what occurred after Ari Haswari, decided to take my life to torture my boss Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs. My opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Guardian Angel Committee here at GA Central. - Respectfully Probationary Guardian Angel Caitlyn Todd

Anthony's Angels: Guardian Angel Caitlyn Todd

A New Broom

NCIS now has a new Director because Tom Morrow moved on to greener pastures and has become the Deputy Director of Homeland Security. His replacement is a female, which should make me feel proud that we have broken through a huge glass ceiling in law enforcement, but there is unfinished business between Gibbs and Jenny Shepard, the new red-headed Director, and something feels off. Weird as it seems, Jenny Shepard was once Gibbs' probie agent on the MCRT, and she also spent some time as his partner six years previously working Special Ops in Europe. It was then that Gibbs succumbed to his famed weakness for titian haired females, and according to Shannon, was the real reason why his Rule 12 existed in the first place.

Apparently, they had engaged in a brief but torrid affair whilst undercover in Paris, which was not a terribly smart strategy. As DiNozzo had constantly lectured me for the two years I spent on the MCRT, you couldn't afford to let your guard down for a minute when you're undercover, and I would surmise that the same rules would apply when working Special Ops, too. Seeing that he had spent almost a year as an undercover cop as one of the Mafia in Philadelphia, I figured he was more than qualified to pontificate on this subject. So it seemed that having an affair while on a mission was a terrible idea, because you certainly needed to let your guard down for longer than a minute. Apart from the tactical considerations, Gibbs had fallen for Shepard hard and fast. She, on the other hand, had her eyes on the prize of fast tracking her career, and when the mission was over she walked away from Gibbs without so much as a backward glance. After having his heart beaten up, he decided that dating a co-worker never worked out, which was dumb as far as I could see, because I knew plenty of agents that managed successful relationships and were even happily married.

I couldn't help wondering if Ari hadn't shot me and if I'd gotten my poop together and actually profiled Tony instead of letting him distract me, whether we could have one day developed a relationship that was more than just bickering colleagues. I know that when Tony was dying of pneumonic plague as his devastated lungs succumbed to pneumonia, I was shaken to discover the depth of my feelings for him. I know that he always said I was like a sister to him, but knowing Tony's experience of family relationships, he probably wasn't a real good judge of such things, and yet even if we had developed feelings for each other, Gibbs' experience with this woman would have queered our pitch. I just hoped that Tony didn't let Rule 12 dictate his relationship with Paula Cassidy, even if she was an NCIS special agent. I would hate for Tony to be ten years down the track and still be alone because of Rule 12. Maybe Gibbs should have just cultivated a personal Rule 12 with modifications; don't date a red-headed co-worker, especially one that is young and ambitious!

Shannon also seems to be less than happy to see Director Shepard return to her husband's life. I think that this is going to cause a lot of angst for Gibbs, which will also place a lot of extra pressure on Tony, too. Mainly because he is like a levee that holds back Gibbs' fury so it doesn't end up becoming a tsunami, consuming the more junior team members who work with him.

In a possible portent of things to come, Shepard has already slapped down Gibbs when it comes to him hand-picking his own team members, as has been the status quo since he finally managed to collect a team that didn't quit every five minutes. He used to have carte blanche to choose people, but Director Shepard has foisted Officer Ziva David upon the MCRT team when she created a new Mossad liaison position at NCIS. The same individual whose half-brother took my life, and as his handler, she was deliberately thwarting our efforts to stop him. The same individual who deceived Gibbs by killing Ari and making him think that he had forced her to take the life of her brother, when that had been the plan of her father right from the beginning.

It seems that Ziva and her father have come to collect on the favour that Gibbs mistakenly felt he owed to Ziva over shooting her brother. Further, it turns out that Ziva and the new Director are old friends, and it sort of feels like it is the female equivalent of jobs for the boys, as she seems to be totally unsuited for such a coveted spot. Worse still, Shepard didn't see fit to inform Gibbs that she was appointing a Mossad operative to replace me. Not only ill-mannered and disrespectful, but I also suspect that this woman enjoyed holding power over Gibbs and making him squirm. It did nothing though for morale, both on and off the team, and I wondered yet again about who was crazy enough to appoint Jennifer Shepard as the new Director. Tom Morrow would have had a great deal more sensitivity and respect for his people and understood that it was his agents that made him look good.

Officer David doesn't have a college degree, which is an absolute minimum requirement for entry into the agency, and she doesn't even come from a law enforcement background. You really have to wonder about the wisdom of letting someone with the most rudimentary understanding of our legal system and procedures, loose to catch dirtbags that then have to be prosecuted under Military or Civilian Courts. She isn't even being required to attend FLETC, which seems to be favouritism at best, and is certainly a dangerous precedent to set.

Why would a spy want to join the team anyway? Oh, I know that she is following the agenda of her father in this regard, but you have to wonder what is going through the head of the new Director. Is she busy trying to curry favours or is she so busy rubbing her promotion in Gibbs' face that she can't see how ludicrous it is to have a spy/assassin given the plum spot on the most successful Major Case Response Team in the Agency.

I have to say that Officer David makes me extremely nervous about Tony for some reason, and I also am getting what Abby calls hinky feelings about the new Director for that matter. While there is something disturbing about how she deals with Gibbs, there is also a strange expression in her eyes when she watches Tony and Gibbs interact together. It is almost a combination of jealousy and lust, which is not good. Certainly, it is not behaviour that you would expect from of a Director of a Federal Agency. While my feminist side wants to celebrate her appointment, I am feeling like this woman poses a danger to our intrepid pair, and Shannon shares my fears, too.

It seems like it is not just us that have less than charitable thoughts about the pair. Abby definitely doesn't like Ms. David either, although probably some of her coldness is because she has replaced me, and Abby never did cope well with change. Poor Abby must be so stressed. Not only is Morrow who had a soft spot for the forensic scientist gone, but a new Director is sniffing around her beloved silver fox, and her behaviour is reminiscent of an oestrus vixen, plus her high-handed tactics are sure making him mad. Adding insult to injury, Director Shepard also forced Abby to work with an assistant, Charles "Chip" Sterling, and even tried to make her adhere to a dress code until Gibbs had stepped in on her behalf, both potential deal breakers for the talented forensic specialist. Unfortunately, Chip was still granted a trial period though. The new broom is certainly sweeping through NCIS and creating a pile of ill will for the latest additions. I almost wonder if she is doing it deliberately.

Ziva also didn't help matters with her social insensitivity, and again I wonder why she is so dang fired up to work on a team when she is not a team player. While no one has been allowed to sit at my desk since my death, and it's not really been that long after all, Ziva simply swept in ignoring all objections by the guys. Maybe with her training as an assassin, she was simply not aware just how deeply the scars of losing a team member would hit the team, or else she simply didn't care about other people's feelings because she would have trod a little lighter. She also doesn't appear to get how much Tony needs to protect those people he works with. She thinks that he is an incompetent fool that can't hold a candle to her training, skills and natural ability.

It is fortunate that Shannon helped me work through my grief and anger after my death, because I am feeling the need to shadow Tony very closely since my replacement arrived. Shannon is also following Gibbs closely, too, and I must admit that this latest undercover mission that the Director has ordered Tony and Ziva to carry out is ill conceived and they are going in with no data, forget reliable data. The mission was so hastily conceived that Shepard called Ducky, who was at the ballet, to come back in urgently to do autopsies on the husband and wife assassins who were killed in an MVA to try and find out some relevant details about them that would help Tony and Ziva impersonate them and discover who they were targeting. Madness!

Knowing what a stickler DiNozzo is for preparing for every little detail and scenario before going undercover, he must be packing it now, not to mention having to go in with a partner he doesn't know very well or trust. Of course, I already know that he doesn't trust people easily after all his early experiences, learning the hard way that people that should have his back let him down, and I can feel via our link that he doesn't trust the Director either. I decided right then to stick to DiNozzo like glue for the duration of the mission, and was relieved that he was taking the mission so seriously. but then he is very skilled at undercover work.

I really wished that he was working alone or with an equally seasoned NCIS agent because despite all the fanfare, I wasn't impressed with the Mossad officer. She already slipped up at dinner where anyone could have heard her and called him Tony instead of Jean Paul, his undercover identity. She also wasn't happy when he rightly corrected her mistake either. This one is arrogant and overconfident, and she'd better not get Tony killed because of it. I was going to have to stay on top of it. Speaking of which, I was yet again relieved that Tony felt the need to respond to Little Miss Mossad, who informed him that they didn't fake having sex when undercover and that it was a good stress management technique. Mind you, the simulated variety was enough to fool a couple of FBI agents, which goes to show that he is a natural undercover.

It happened just as they were on the way to an agreed upon meeting when they were hi-jacked in a lift. Everyone was expecting them to emerge from the hotel and rendezvous with the clients for the meeting that had been organised, but the killers took everyone unawares. Surprisingly, Tony didn't pick up on the fact that the hotel attendant in the lift with them had a gun, but then again neither did Miss Ninja Warrior Super-spy, who was supposed to be able to sense things that mere mortals and non Mossad-trained operatives, especially dumb Senior Field Agents, never could.

So they were overpowered, and it seems that the husband and wife assassins weren't being contracted out for a sanctioned kill of a Naval identity during the Marine Corps Birthday Ball after all. The Raniers had records on all their past terminations and clients, which had enormous blackmail potential for a great many people, and the husband and wife assassins were looking to use it to help them retire from a profession that frowned upon such practices. Sophie and Jean Paul Ranier had themselves become the hunted.

By rushing in two undercover agents to impersonate them with no clue about what the situation was, the new Director of NCIS had placed their lives in danger, and truth be told, the evidence that could be used by law enforcement agencies was already hidden on Sophie Ranier's body, so there was no real payoff for the risk incurred. In his typically thorough fashion, Ducky had already detected the chip and removed it, so it seemed that placing Tony and Ziva undercover so impetuously had been rash at best. Meanwhile, Tony was getting systematically beaten by the assassins sent to kill the Raniers and retrieve the microchip and of course, neither Ziva nor Tony had a clue about what they were looking for or where to find it.

Here I was, my mortal tied to a chair and getting the stuffing beaten out of him and knowing that the dirtbags were planning on killing Tony and Ziva, so I freely admit I was panicking. I'm a Probationary Guardian Angel, and what the heck was I supposed to do? Can I step in front of a bullet, overpower them with my mind? What?! Was there something I could have done earlier to stop this happening but that is history now?

What am I going to do, because Shannon has sent a message saying that the new Director has overruled Agent Fornell's order to start searching hotel rooms when they realised their agents had been abducted? I just knew that woman was trouble; her rationale for not searching the hotel was that Ziva would find a way to get a message to them because she was so good. Well, as it turns out despite my rookie dithering and Shepard's callous disregard for her people and her misplaced faith in Ziva, Tony was yet again thinking on his feet. I shouldn't be surprised, having seen his quick wit and ability to problem solve like the time he was trapped with Gunnery Sergeant Bill Atlas down in the sewer system when he managed to save them both with just a belt knife or survived being chained to a serial killer who tried to kill him demonstrated his competency.

DiNozzo managed to convince the killers that the information they wanted was hidden somewhere in their hotel room and that Sophie was the only one who could locate it. He knew that if she could get back to the suite, NCIS agents would be there to overpower and detain the killer. Ziva, on the whole, didn't seem very impressed with Tony's plan, pointing out that he was still likely to be killed, yet she didn't come up with anything better. Thanks to the empathetic link I share with DiNozzo, I knew that he was desperate to save his newest partner and was determined that she would survive. In the same way that he had been prepared to sacrifice himself for McGee and I when Ari had left the car bomb behind, he was utterly focused on getting his junior partner out of danger and prepared to do as much as it took. As far as he was concerned, it was his responsibility as SFA and his life was not important.

When the killers took the bait and one of them released Ziva and escorted her back to their room, I felt Tony relax with relief, and the effects of a significant concussion began to catch up with him and I felt all the adrenaline drain out of him as he slumped exhausted and hurting. I kept expecting him to come up fighting with some half-assed movie plot to talk his way loose, but I could tell he was struggling to hold on to consciousness now that Ziva was safe. I knew that his time was running out and I was frantic, which may have been a good thing since I guess I acted on instinct. There was only one sure fire way to motivate my mortal and because I had been his partner for two years, it was purely instinctive. I didn't even stop to wonder if it was possible.

I sent a message down the empathic link. A simple mantra voiced over and over again. _Ziva needs your help. Ziva's not safe yet._ _Ziva needs your help. Ziva's not safe yet. _ Although I had no idea if the empathic link worked both ways, I felt DiNozzo metaphorically girding his loins for battle as he fought back his nausea and dizziness. Then he reached down deep into the depths of his dark and angry soul, and I could tell he was utilising the rage he experienced at my death and his impotence at being unable to prevent it. He summoned what he referred to as his monster, who he tried his hardest to contain at all times, and let it off its leash to run riot.

To see the normally easy going, competent agent erupt in a storm of fury and rage where even tied hand and foot to a chair, he easily took down an armed killer was to say the least an exhilarating, even scary sight. In all of the two years we worked together, I have never seen that side of Tony and it took Ziva physically grounding him with touch to finally draw him back from the abyss of rage he was teetering upon.

Luckily, the case concluded with only Tony's concussion and significant bruising as casualties, because it was not exactly a resounding success, apart from the fact that they both escaped with their lives and they caught a couple of dirtbags. Officer David, however, was less than pleased with the fact that it had been Tony who had gotten them out of the dangerous situation, and she felt he was contemptuous of her skills and training. In her mind he should have been the one to go for help, but he talked the killers into letting her go for backup because she was a woman and that made him a stupid male chauvinist, and arrogant to boot. As far as Ziva was concerned, he was no match for her skills; she considered him to be a typical sexist American cop who was barely capable of locating his own dick.

Mind you, the fact that it was his quick thinking that enabled them to separate the dirtbags and get help didn't warrant a lot of recognition from the Mossad assassin, nor did the fact that Tony was still able to take out an armed killer while he was tied to a chair. In fact, it was one of those rare times when Tony actually let his goofy and harmless mask slip away and all his colleagues had the rarest opportunity to see the sheer ferocity that lies simmering just below the surface of the man. Even Gibbs was shocked, having never seen the dark side of his Senior Field Agent before.

Ziva obviously doesn't understand just how much my death has shaken Tony, because he feels that as Senior Field Agent it is his responsibility to keep the rest of the team safe, and he failed me. She saw only the flaws in his strategy while Tony saw the big picture, and was courageous enough to do whatever it took to protect a partner. He would have done no less for Gibbs or McGee, or even the despised Feebie's, should they have been in danger, too. It wouldn't have mattered to him what their gender was. There was no way he could have coped with the death of another colleague right then when he was barely managing to live with my death.

And just when I thought that all the excitement was done and dusted and Tony was good to go home and recover from their near miss, that weirdo lab assistant of Abby's was hanging about behaving strangely. Abby had him bring Tony's car round to the front door so Tony wouldn't have to walk down to the garage, but he spent a good five minutes checking out the Mustang's trunk. He also collected some bloody tissues from the bin where Tony had chucked them before heading home, and I have to say that the new Director has certainly outdone herself in hiring a genuine certifiably crazy lab rat, and his preoccupation with my mortal makes me feel hinky, as Abby would say. I decided to head back to GA central and debrief with my red-haired mentor. It had been a very long day.

After comparing notes with Shannon, we concluded that our concerns about the two women were not unfounded. The Director was impulsive and ambitious, not super smart, and her liaison officer was not as good as she would like everyone to think. She did seem to win over McGee with her techno toy glasses, but it wasn't her whiz-bang specs that had saved the day, but genuine DiNozzo ingenuity. I nervously explained to Shannon how I had interceded when I thought that Tony was ready to give up, hoping I hadn't done anything wrong.

Shannon smiled reassuringly. "You did good, honey. You went with your instincts and didn't over think it. I knew you'd be great for Tony because you knew exactly what button to push to get him to fight again."

"So the empathetic link does work in both directions, Shan?"

"Well yeah, Cate. Where do you think Jethro gets most of his infamous gut feelings from?" She smirked. "Ya just have to be cautious that they don't realise you're communicating with them. It's easier to do it when you're first starting out when they are sleeping, so if you do come on a bit strong, Tony will simply think it is a dream." Shannon explained patiently. "But don't worry about today. He would have been too out of it to be aware of your presence."

Relieved that I hadn't committed a huge faux pas, we decided it was time to find Kelly and take a well-earned break. Shannon was rubbing her sternum constantly and I surmised that Gibbs must be working on a giant case of heartburn while I could feel Tony struggling to contain his dark side after letting it loose today. We also both agreed that we needed to keep a close eye on that Chip character, as my gut was telling me he was up to no good.


	7. Chapter 7

ng: T

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS only the idea for this story is mine nor I am making any money from it.

Any errors are my bad of course.

Acknowledgements: Reviews are gratefully appreciated even if I can't always thank you all personally. Issuing a challenge to lurkers; I love hearing from you too so drop me a review or PM, it really is completely painless. Also thanks to those people who have already alerted and favourited the Angel Series. Your support means a lot. I have several tags that I will be posting soon and hope you enjoy them

Angel Author's Note: This report is to the best of my ability and recollection, an accurate account of what occurred after Ari Haswari, decided to take my life to torture my boss Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs. My opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Guardian Angel Committee here at GA Central. - Respectfully Probationary Guardian Angel Caitlyn Todd

Anthony's Angels: Guardian Angel Caitlyn Todd

In The Frame

I had always thought that it was long overdue for a woman to be appointed the head of a federal agency and at first was really excited to learn that Jenny Shepard was replacing Director Morrow as head of the agency. Not because I knew her or her reputation. No, I'm ashamed to say that my joy was simply because of her gender. While it sounds like a form of reverse discrimination and it probably is, it is also completely understandable, considering how long the patriarchal dominance of Federal Law Enforcement Agencies has existed where women have never before managed to break through the glass ceiling.

Now though, with the benefit of hindsight, to say that I am underwhelmed with the performance of Director Shepard, that would have to be a huge understatement. It pains me, it really does, since I have always been a loud and proud feminist and was brought up to believe that within reason, a woman could do anything a man could do, certainly they can be as effective as the director of a Federal Agency as a man. But this 'Shepard woman' is really doing no favours to the feminist cause. She has only been in the job for a relatively short period of time, yet so far she has managed to slip up several times and each time it has caused pain and suffering to Tony.

Therefore, because of the empathetic link I now share with DiNozzo and the fact he is the mortal I have been entrusted to protect, when he hurts now, I hurt too and that has made me much less charitable than I might have been as a special agent. Back when I was merely mortal, I was much less enamored by my ex-partner. Knowing what I now know about the true measure of the man; I am much less tolerance of anything negatively impinging on DiNozzo and lately he can't seem to take a trick.

The first time Shepard managed to drop the ball, was by making the hasty decision to place Tony undercover with Ziva David on the spur of the moment, impersonating two contract assassins who had been accidentally killed in a motor vehicle accident. Her assumption that they had been contracted out to assassinate someone at the Marine's Birthday Ball, would have been laughable considering how off target it was, except that the two agents almost died in the biggest FUBAR as Gibbs would say and Tony was beaten severely. Having been Gibbs probie, she should have been very au fait with Rule #8 - never assume and yet, obviously not. Still, as disgusted as I was with that particular error since Tony was harmed; a part of me cautioned that Shepard was only human, and everyone could make a mistake. So I decided to cut her some slack… a very short amount of slack.

That was until she compounded the first error by deciding to disturb Abby Scuito's universe by bringing in an unwanted and unwelcome forensic assistant and enforce the office dress code that forced her to dress like an automaton. Gibbs managed to nix the dress code when Abby developed a psychosomatic allergy to her so called 'Office Barbie' garb but Shepard stubbornly refused to reverse her decision on Charles Sterling, the creepy lab assistant that she hired. While Gibbs had managed to finagle a promise out of her that if after a trial of a month Abby was still opposed to the assistant, she would terminate his position, once he was through the door, the damage had already been done.

Still, would it be too much to expect that when you hire someone to work in a Federal Law Enforcement Agency, especially when that person was going to be handling evidence and conducting tests that would solve crimes and be responsible for putting criminals away in a court of law, that you'd actually checked out their credentials? Wouldn't you make it your business to speak to past employers and check references to ensure that the person was of sound mind and character, that they weren't planning on gaining employment in order to actually commit a crime against one of your own? It wasn't as if Charles 'Chip' Sterling was exactly in full control of his faculties or even harmless to everybody else apart from Tony, as his attack on Abby with a wicked looking knife pretty clearly demonstrated.

Fortunately Abby wasn't exactly a shrinking violet, no doubt in part due to the seedy nightclubs she tended to frequent which meant she needed to be able to look after herself. So she was able to neutralise Charles Sterling but it could have easily resulted in Abby being seriously injured or even dead thanks to the forensic tech creepoid obsessed with vengeance. All because while he had set up the perfect frame-up, Abby had refused to accept the overwhelming evidence at face value and managed to thwart his plan for revenge.

As bad as his intentions, well actually to be accurate, his deeds since he came within a cat's whisker of succeeding in sending Tony away for life and harming Abby, it could have been even worse. What if instead of a disgruntled lunatic bent on extracting revenge on an ex-cop upholding his sworn duty, he had been a psychotic killer looking to take out multiple victims or even worse if he'd been a terrorist? He could have easily killed an untold number of victims amongst the ancillary staff or even taken out the whole building by blowing it up. The possible scenarios were endless and terrifying, not to mention, he possessed the knowledge and ability to taint evidence or screw-up multiple investigations, simply because he could. That and oh wait; he was crazy!

And it wasn't as if he didn't do untold damage to Tony either. He might not have injured him physically, yet Tony would probably have preferred to be injured than the alternative. Having his private life laid bare for every Tom, Dick or Harry (or David, McGee and Sacks) to stomp through with all the sensitivity of a hippopotamus with pre-menstrual syndrome, well that had been the antithesis to everything that the obsessively, secret special agent had ever striven for. Frankly, the jokes at his expense by the team, as he sat at his desk desperately trying to compile a list of possible suspects, were just plain cruel and lacked empathy, when he needed it most. Why was it that they did not think to simply lay a hand on his shoulder and assure him they didn't believe he was capable of such a heinous crime? Had none of them ever heard of the philosophy of do unto others, growing up? Seemingly not or else they just didn't care!

Surely they could understand that there was no greater insult to a law enforcement professional like Tony who gained enormous personal satisfaction by obtaining justice for victims and survivors of crimes, than to be accused of being of cold blooded killer. In some regards, Tony was a modern day Knight who, like his predecessors during Middle Ages observed a strict code of chivalry, which was kind of ironic since he was a survivor of a medieval scourge called the plague. Amused in spite of myself that I was equating Tony to Knights of Yore, I compared what I knew about the Chivalric Code of Conduct for Knights against everything I knew about Anthony DiNozzo before and since I'd become a Probationary Guardian Angel. Yeah, who'd have thunk it, that I would turn out to be his biggest champion?

Yet Knights were strong of both body and character, as well as disciplined; they used their power to protect the weak and defenceless and were loyal, generous and noble of bearing. Check! They assiduously guarded the honour of their fellow Knights, while despising rewards of a pecuniary nature. Now that I finally knew what had prompted Tony's departure from Baltimore, leaving him in such turmoil over the difficulty in pursuing both of those ideals simultaneously when it came to his former partner; I understood that leaving was the best compromise he could come up with. But that it still didn't sit right with him and he struggled with the knowledge that Danny was still free.

Further tenets of the Chivalric Code had deemed it absolutely unacceptable for a Knight to turn one's back on a foe, ever, and a Knight was expected to never ever show weakness and expected to die fighting until their last breath. Both of those stalwart qualities also epitomised the DiNozzo that I now knew which made him a man of honour, despite his attempts to portray himself, otherwise. Tony used his brashness, his goofy sense of fun and humour, his uncanny ability to convince people to underestimate his inherently dangerous nature. He used those skills of deflection as his chain mail suit of armour in order to protect his vulnerabilities, his sensitivity and empathy from being used against him and rendering him defenceless. It took great talent to hide his lethal qualities beneath the façade of a clown and even though he excelled at it, he nevertheless paid a heavy price for that ability. Respect was something he often sacrificed when people failed to look below the surface.

So it seemed a cruel irony, that those very defense mechanisms that he relied upon to keep him safe from the harsh scrutiny of the world, had then been turned against him by that scumbag, to help set him up for what wasn't even a murder to begin with. When Tony lost it in the jail cell, with his brutal analysis of how a trial would go, it spoke volumes about how truly desperate he was feeling. To let down his guard so completely in front of his mentor and boss, was such a rare display of his vulnerability, it proved unequivocally how truly rattled he was. Perhaps his desperation stemmed from the fact that it was almost impossible to prove his innocence without a body or a crime scene so it must have felt as if he was battling an invisible foe.

As Tony said, how was he supposed to prove that he hadn't committed a crime when he didn't even know when the alleged murder had taken place? The sicko Charles "Chip" Sterling was given a perfect opportunity to collect all the evidence he needed to set Tony up. If she had been trying to set him up, I don't think that Madame Director could do a better job of helping said individual collect damning forensic evidence against him. It just added insult to injury that he was able to collect Tony's blood after he was beaten on that disastrous undercover mission, with Ziva and the carpet fibres from Tony's mustang.

Charles Sterling was a whack job that should never have made it past the front desk in the lobby. Yet he infiltrated the defences of a federal agency post 9/11 no less, which was a serious indictment on NCIS' security procedures under this director's administration. Sure, I am a Probationary Angel now, but I still understand human nature and how it is plausible for a new boss to move into the role; to place their own stamp on the job and signal to their subordinates that there had been a changing of the guard.

I knew that people often got moved sideways or lost their jobs as the new boss brought in their own preferred staff or changed procedures. It was analogous to when two lions fought for dominance of the pride and even if the vanquished former pride leader wasn't killed when they lost the pride, all their progeny were not so lucky. They were mercilessly slaughtered to get rid of future competition to the new leader's existence, protect their gene pool and to encourage the lionesses to become fertile rapidly. Shepard wanted people who were loyal only to her.

So it wasn't exactly unexpected to find that Director Shepard should feel the need to make her mark, indeed to basically pee over the top of Director Morrow's and overlay his scent and extinguish traces of him The former director was such an institution at NCIS and it would take someone with a considerable amount of talent, not to mention dedication, to live up to his reputation and stature, though. Given what I've seen of the latest director, I rather suspected that she would not be satisfied with merely attaining a similar standing to her predecessor, she was ambitious enough to believe she could usurp Tom Morrow's import.

Of course, apart from her haste to put her imprint on the Director's office, which may explain her indefensible lapse in judgement and security, I truly believe that her complex relationship with Gibbs bears scrutinizing too. I knew that Tony was still trying to get a handle on what was going on between them. He'd immediately picked up on the unmistakable vibe of former lovers who had parted acrimoniously, even though he wasn't sure if it was mutual or not. Jenny Shepard wanting to insert herself into MCRT cases, when she knew that Gibbs jealously guarded control of his cases like a dog with a bone; was an obvious attempt to remind him of his place. To emphasize that his former protégé had managed to surpass the master but their constant sparring, which continued even during the case to prove that Tony had been framed for the murder of Jane Doe, was disturbing.

But perhaps what was even more troubling, was the constant schizoid shifting from her 'Brigit Bardot sex kitten' persona that seemed to be a blatant attempt to rekindle the fires with her former lover and her 'Maggie Thatcher Iron Lady' persona, complete with pearls, bouffant hair bun and dowdy pussy's bow; bent on the emasculation her former boss, who dared to call into question her competence for the role. As for Gibbs, who taunted her contemptuously, for example telling her that he wore a cup and questioning her abilities, it was evidence that both were distracted by their feelings and past history. It was easy to see why for Gibbs anyway, this particular workplace relationship definitely didn't work.

So, I'm not sure how much of the failure to guard against Charles Sterling breaching security by gaining a highly sensitive forensic position at NCIS, was due to the new broom phenomenon of a change of leadership and how much was due to Gibbs and Shepard's peeing competitions. Truly, it was like watching a pair of testosterone riddled twenty year olds, trying to prove which of the pair of hot-headed and stubborn individuals had the bigger pair of gonads.

Frankly, I always ascribed to the belief that to play successfully in the big sandbox with the boys, a woman had to behave like a man and yet now being able see how well that worked in this case, I was rapidly revising my opinion. Shepard, trying to prove that she had just as big a set of male genitalia as the big bad Gunnery Sergeant Gibbs was destructive; it had quite conceivably contributed to the failure to ensure a safe workplace for the staff that worked at the DC office. Had Sterling succeeded in getting the drop on Abby and he had managed to harm her, I knew only too well that Tony would not have been able to cope with the guilt that he would have endured.

I knew this with absolute certainty since right from the resolution of the case with Tony's release from jail and the discovery of Sterling's identity and threat against Abby, my partner has endured nightmares that obviously I have been privy to, as well. His dreams have alternated between horrific dreams of being thrown in a locked jail cell with all the murderers and rapists that he had caught over the years and being ripped apart by a mob of sadistic sickos. These were interspersed with disturbing, graphic images of Abby's lifeless body, lying on the floor of her lab mutilated beyond recognition, horrific knife wounds and her blood splattered everywhere.

Not surprising for anyone who knew the real DiNozzo, it was the nightmares of Abby brutally dismemberment that always woke him up screaming in terror, not his own demise at the hands of all the dirt bags he's put away. I was pretty certain that he wouldn't have be able to forgive himself for putting Abby in danger even though he was as much a victim of circumstances, if not more so than the Goth forensic scientist. If anything had happened to his friend, DiNozzo would have found some way to commit death by dirtbag, I have no doubt about that.

It was going to be a long time before he was able to put this episode behind him, between his loss of control, loss of privacy and the nightmares that joined a long line of dreams that haunted him and yet to those who didn't know the real person, he seemed to be his normal resilient, happy-go-lucky self. Oh yeah, Sir Galahad had his frat boy armour firmly back in place once more.


	8. Chapter 8

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS only the idea for this story is mine nor I am making any money from it.

Thanks to Arress for her help with tis chapter. Any errors are my bad, of course.

Acknowledgements: Reviews are gratefully appreciated even if I can't always thank you all personally. Issuing a challenge to lurkers; I love hearing from you too so drop me a review or PM, it really is completely painless. Also thanks to those people who have already alerted and favourited the Angel Series. Your support means a lot. I have several tags that I will be posting soon and hope you enjoy them

Angel Author's Note: This report is to the best of my ability and recollection, an accurate account of what occurred after Ari Haswari, decided to take my life to torture my boss Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs. My opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Guardian Angel Committee here at GA Central. - Respectfully Probationary Guardian Angel Caitlyn Todd

Anthony's Angels: Guardian Angel Caitlyn Todd

It's Not Paranoia If Someone's Out To Get You

Tony was paranoid. Ever since being framed by that lunatic Chip aka Charles Sterling a couple of weeks ago, he'd been unable to settle down. He knew it was stupid, but he couldn't shake the feeling everyone was watching him continuously, and he hated knowing that the team had, figuratively at least, gone through his underwear drawer, uncovering all of his personal business and secrets. As an experienced cop and agent, Tony had always figured that it would have to happen eventually, but he'd always thought it would be when he was dead and the team was trying to figure out who had offed him, just like he'd done with so many of his partners and friends over the years . When Pacci died, I remember that conversation we'd had, when Gibbs had sent us to search Chris' place after he was found, gutted and left for dead in a lift while working a cold case.

Apart from the feeling that everyone knew his private business, Tony had also taken to deliberately driving and walking in front of CCTV cameras at every possible opportunity, in case at some point in the future he needed to establish an alibi. Discovering that an enemy could set him up so comprehensively when there was no crime or even a body had definitely made him very antsy and insecure. I guess if it had happened to me, I would be having trouble dealing with it, too. Meanwhile he also kept an exhaustive personal journal on where he was and what he was doing every free minute when he wasn't at work and noting down if he was with people who could verify his whereabouts.

To say I was worried about Tony would be an understatement and I knew that his lack of sleep was probably not helping either. Having nightmares almost every night about being incarcerated with all the dirtbags he'd put away, plus the horrific dreams where Chip had managed to kill Abby was making him short tempered and tired. I knew from an undergrad psych course that one of the effects of sleep deprivation was that it could cause paranoia and since Tony was already feeling paranoid, and really who could blame him after Chip. So between his anxiety and lack of sleep, it really was a catch 22 situation.

So when Tony opened a letter at the office one morning from an Ohio Sperm Bank that advised him that there was an urgent matter that needed to be discussed with him at his earliest convenience, his paranoia went into over drive. He was so shaken that he never noticed Ziva wander up behind him and start to read his letter over his shoulder. Really, am I the only one that notices how she gets into his personal space at every opportunity? He might be paranoid, but lack of sleep was starting to affect DiNozzo's freaky super-sensory perception and for some reason, the letter seemed to have upset him badly. So I sent the equivalent of a psst down the empathic link that we share, to let him know that there was danger and he quickly folded the letter, noting the Mossad Officer standing up close enough to read over his shoulder.

I wasn't sure what had made him so suspicious about her behaviour since she was always spying on people. It soon became obvious that she was trying to pump him for information so he slipped into deflecting her and then he sought refuge in Abby's lab for a while. He was still full of guilt about what Chip had done to Abby, so he was ducking down to check on her several times a day. As near as I could tell, she was still feeling guilty, too, if the black roses she'd given him was a clue, because it was her forensic tests that had been responsible for him being arrested. Honestly, what a pair they made!

On his way back up to the bullpen, Tony pulled out his cell phone and called someone called Rebound who seemed to be a college buddy.

"Hey, Man, I need your help. I need you to hack into the Sperm Bank that we visited back in the day. I got a letter today saying they needed to talk to me urgently."

_O-kay so I guess he must have made a donation at some point. That wasn't in his file, or if it was, I must have missed it._

"Well, I need you to get into their database and look at my file. Because I want to know how they found me, Rebound. I was in college in Ohio when we did it and my address was on-campus, doofus. And I've also had a lot of changes of address, at least six at last count, and frankly as a Fed, I don't go making it easy for people to find me since its kinda asking for trouble. I might as well deliver an invitation to all the bad guys to come on over and beat me up, so how'd they find me?

_Well, he does sound a tad bit paranoid I guess, but still after the week he's had, I'd probably wonder about the coincidence, too, especially so soon after being framed. I know that one of the things that still troubled him was how Chip managed to set up George Stewart, the Forensic Technician and gain access to Jane Doe's legs. Getting access to his own DNA, dental impression, fingerprints, blood and the carpet fibres from his car was easily explainable since Shepard had given him carte blanche by giving him a job in the NCIS lab, but it didn't explain how he'd gotten access to the legs, and Tony suspected that he had help. Now that this letter had turned up his antennae was going off._

"Well, maybe I am, Rebound, but humour me please. You guys might have been drunk off your faces at the time, but I was still sober enough not to use my real name. I used my mother's maiden name, so tell me how did a dinky little clinic in Ohio track me down a dozen or so years later in DC? _ Okay, so Tony was feeling paranoid since Chip, I'll admit, but that seemed like a very pertinent point, so it did seem so much more than a coincidence, especially considering the timing._

"C'mon, Man, it wouldn't be the first time you've found your way into a database, and besides, you owe me for not arresting you years ago. Okay, so maybe that's a bad joke, but seriously, I need your help. I need to know if someone is trying to mess with me… I was framed for murder last week, so shoot me if I do sound paranoid, but cut me some slack… Okay, thanks. I'll send you a case of boutique beer. Let me know what you find. Talk soon."

_I wondered why Tony didn't ask McGee to hack into the clinic records for him, but then again, they'd picked over his personal life, and they also hadn't been exactly sensitive, teasing him when he was at rock bottom. Of course he would turn to a Frat Brother when he was in trouble, but the question was, was he in trouble and what would anyone have to gain by raising a matter that had taken place so long again? Could Chip have a hand in this, too? It wasn't even as if it was bad or illegal, but it was another piece of his past that he definitely didn't want anyone to know about. Being privy to it, I did understand._

When Tony arrived back in the bullpen Ziva was sending him meaningful looks, which he ignored, and I knew he was worrying about how much she had read over his shoulder. The rest of the day was spent planning and preparing for a protection detail for the Chief of the Navy Operations. Since it was a high profile personage, several teams were involved and they all needed to be co-ordinating the operation, so I felt safe in popping up to Guardian Angel HQ to check the file. I wanted to check to see if I had really missed Tony's little donation, and sure enough, it had been a drunken dare one night at a party with his Frat brothers, although I figured that Tony was far less drunk than his buddies. Having two parents who were alcoholics had left him with plenty of memories of them getting blind drunk, and I now know he had no wish to go there.

His motivation for his donation couldn't be blamed on an alcoholic haze, more like youthful rebelliousness. When he defied his father and took the partial scholarship to Ohio State instead of attending an Ivy League college to study business, his father had gone ballistic. Raving about the shame to the DiNozzo name and bloodline and making a lot of hurtful observations about his son, so young Anthony Junior had figured that diluting the DiNozzo bloodline, even if Senior didn't know, was a way of striking back at the monster that had made his childhood so dysfunctional. And there it was in the file; sure enough, he'd visited the clinic and made the donation in the name Tony Paddington, so how had they managed to track him down and why? It was an awful lot of effort to go to, so it must be something extremely important like an offspring developing a genetic condition serious enough to justify a complex search. Even then, how had he been found since he'd used a false name, and let's face it, back then it must have been quite common to do that surely?

I left with Shannon, since we'd both be watching out for Gibbs and Tony's sixes during the protection detail and she reached across to hug me. I guess she realised that the protection detail was bringing back memories about the last time I work on one and it ended up getting me killed. Shannon is such a sweetheart!

The question that had been troubling Tony all day because of the suggestive comments and looks that Officer David had been shooting his way, was finally answered. In true Mossad interrogatory style she waited until she was alone with Tony, partnered up on the protection detail where he was preoccupied, she started asking him why he was getting mail from a sperm bank. While I admit that her nosiness might simply be her natural state which was part and parcel of being a spy, I knew that Tony didn't really trust her as far as he could throw her. In part it was because she confessed to him that she had compiled dossiers on all of the team for her brother Ari, which meant she would have a good idea of their strengths and weaknesses. That also meant she would be able to manipulate and exploit them, and as far as Tony was concerned, that was what was going on with Gibbs, who seemed to spend time whispering and conferring with the Mossad liaison like a pair of teenage schoolgirls, which was very out of character.

Of course, Tony was also naturally loath to trust people easily, so while he definitely didn't trust Ziva, he couldn't help suspecting she might have a hand in this latest so called coincidence. Cate knew he wasn't sure if the motivation was because she was just messing with him or she had orchestrated the whole issue with the Sperm Bank as part of her agenda to work her way into a position of trust with Gibbs, or just because Mossad operatives were too accustomed to playing mind games with those around them and she wanted to see him squirm. As far as Tony was concerned, any ninja chick _(hey, didn't I teach you that it was demeaning to refer to woman as chicks, DiNozzo?)_ who got her kicks out of storming into the Men's Head and catching them with their flies open and in the middle of taking care of things (_alright, I admit I have used editorial licence to censor Tony's phraseology, but I was brought up to be a good Catholic girl and old habits die hard. Yeah, especially when you die, so suck it up.) _So as far as he was concerned, she was capable of anything. _I had to agree with Tony that there was something inherently sick with Officer David bursting in on her male colleagues when they used the urinals. I wonder how she'd like me popping in to have a little chat with her when she was in the middle of a tinkle._

Either way, Tony decided to play it cagey, and since it was clear that she knew about the letter, he admitted to his youthful visit to the clinic in college, resolving to set things up to find out one way or another if she was behind it. Since Ziva was a spy, it wasn't that inconceivable that someone had told her about their silly college dare without them being aware that she was pumping them for information. She was a Mossad-trained spy after all, and she did prepare that damned file on him.

Suddenly, as they were escorting the Chief of Naval Operations to his car in the underground car park, all Hell broke out and McGee ended up shooting and killing a suspected combatant. Although Tim swore that he had seen the flash of a gun firing at him and he'd simply returned fire to defend himself, the team was unable to find any bullets to verify McGee's account. When they discovered that the guy that he'd killed was actually an undercover Metro PD detective, the poop really hit the fan. Gibbs was running around arguing with Director Shepard, big surprise there, and yelling at the team to find the forensic evidence. Ziva was sceptical since they had searched for hours and been unable to find any bullets or shell casings that could back McGee's story, which convinced her that the Probie had panicked and made a mistake. I was peeved when she tried to drag Tony into it when she claimed that they both thought it had been a wrongful shooting.

Tony had thought it was a long shot searching for an SUV without a full plate to run, but he was convinced that McGee went through a series of multiple algorisms before he would even brush his teeth, and he really didn't believe that it was at all feasible that McGee had acted impulsively. If McGee had frozen during the process of reviewing his various options, Tony would have been more likely to entertain him making a mistake, but he was not happy with Ziva questioning Gibbs in the bull pen and then daring to presume to know what he thought, or to speak for him either.

She was definitely overstepping her position as a liaison. Then to make matters worse, when she and Gibbs started whispering right in the middle of the bull pen with the express purpose of excluding Tony since he was the only one there, Tony's frustration and suspicion had ratcheted up several degrees. As an angel, I had the benefit of being able to listen in and knew that Gibbs was actually insulting her family, but Tony didn't know it, and I doubt he would have taken that much solace in that either. Gibbs never cared about dressing down Tony in front of his subordinates, so he would simply want to know why the kid gloves treatment was used for Officer David.

Okay, so I admit that I don't like the woman, so sue me, but she prepared a dossier on me that helped Ari get inside my head and made a fool of me and my profiling skills. Heck, her sociopath of a brother murdered me and tried to kill my friends, too, and she was his handler and had the wool pulled over her eyes by her brother, so how good was she at her job? If she had followed her orders and killed Ari as ordered, he might not have had a chance to kill me, so yeah, not feeling the fuzzies for her and not going to apologise about that. Now, she has been rewarded with my job and my desk, plus Gibbs was treating her like a long lost daughter, AND she was messing with my mortal.

So yeah, I have issues with her, but I am also peeved with Gibbs, too. He was being his usual B for Bastard, and who would expect any different, but he could be such a big hypocrite sometimes. He was running around yelling at everyone because Tim is being charged with Negligent Homicide by Metro PD after he admitted that he panicked and Detective Benedict didn't have a weapon. But he didn't listen when Tony tried to give him vital information he'd uncovered about someone else being in the car and shooting Benedict.

In typical fashion, Gibbs assumed (_excuse me, what about Rule #8 anyway, Gibbs) _that Tony was goofing off and, yeah, I get that he was upset about Tim, but he didn't get his panties in a twist like that when they had all ragged on Tony after Chip framed him for murder. He was fair game apparently, but not McGee, which was not only hypocritical but wrong, since Tony had found a clue and was trying to share. So what happened next made me see red. After deciding to 'Gibbs slap' DiNozzo, who was doing his job, the Boss apparently couldn't be bothered taking a couple of steps and do it personally and ordered Ziva to do it for him. I couldn't believe it, it was absolutely outrageous and I know that Tony couldn't believe it either.

Seriously, if my superior had ordered a subordinate to hit me in front of a squad room full of my colleagues, I would have had an official complaint in to HR that quickly; Gibbs' head would have spun so fast he would have needed Dramamine; a boat load, at that. Gibbs might find it amusing to joke about the second B, but if I weren't a Guardian Angel… well, technically a probationary one, I would inflict some really serious hurt on the guy.

While I was half proud of DiNozzo that he didn't let it distract him from the task at hand of clearing Tim, I was also cranky that he didn't storm straight up to Director Shepard's office and make a formal complaint against Gibbs and Officer David. Not that she would do anything about it, but Tony needs to stop excusing bad behaviour by his team mates. Although I guess when you grow up with two alcoholic parents, it would mean that he had way too much to forgive growing up, and probably had far too much practise doing it. At least when he got Ziva alone and he had cooled off enough to speak about it, Tony warned her that if she ever hit him again he would retaliate. Since I happen to know how he feels about striking females, it was proof enough that he was furious about it. As I was discovering, he might act easy-going, but apparently he had an extremely bad temper, and I knew that he was absolutely in earnest about his threat.

As they were locating the missing slug of Tim's, which was the missing piece of the case proving that someone else fired a gun in the alley and that at least one slug from the gun hit Detective Benedict, Tony received a called purported to be from the Sperm Bank. Since he had never been able to contact the clinic no matter what time of day he called, he was becoming increasingly suspicious and the convenient call that came when he was with Ziva heightened his already sky-high paranoia. It sure seemed as if someone was messing with him. Since Rebound had called him earlier on to say he'd checked it out and found that there was no record of the clinic searching for him or sending him a letter, his hacker buddy decided to check on the status of everyone's donations._ I smirked, figuring it was probably an excuse to indulge his curiosity about something that provoked typical male competitiveness. Tony's buddy had reported that Steve had one more progeny than Tony, who had been used by six women and Rebound had been picked by four childless couples._

So when the phone call came in from a woman claiming to be from the Sperm Bank to tell him that no one wanted his sperm, Tony definitely knew that someone was trying to mess with him. He just wasn't sure if it was Ziva and Mossed, who for some reason wanted to play mind games, or someone else had been involved with Sterling's pretty sophisticated attempt to frame him. Either way, he decided to go along with the ruse, pretending to accept the call at face value and not let on that he thought it was faked. I had to laugh at how Tony had let Ziva drag the information about the phone call out of him. Honestly, she really must have thought he was awfully green if she thought Tony would fall for such an obvious ploy.

Tony had pulled off the same ploy with Tim when he tricked him into confessing he'd slept with Abby, not to mention the countless times I'd seen him use it during interviews and interrogations. When he'd told me over coffee how Tim had fallen for the trap I was disgusted with him, and tore him a new one, thinking he was being his typical juvenile frat boy self but he'd shaken his head and said he already knew that they had slept together. Tony claimed that McGee was far too green so he was trying to educate him in practical interrogation techniques by applying it in a way that would make a deep impression on him, since being embarrassed would be way more effective that theory gained at FLETC and much more memorable. He said it was better than having a dirtbag or an outsider teach him the hard way, where those sort of slip-ups could ruin careers or cost lives.

I admit that I still thought he was torturing McGee for fun so when I had a chance to go through his file at Guardian Angel Central, I checked. Sure enough though, once McGee realised that Tony had tricked him into revealing the information he had no intention of telling, instead of trying to get lurid details Tony turned it into a training moment. Dang, under estimated him again!

I have to give him credit with Ziva though, he was so convincing, letting her think she was dragging it out of him that they were ditching his sample since no one wanted it. He looked embarrassed when she started asking him about the call and then outraged when Ziva informed him she had already talked to the woman, then chagrined when it dawned on him that she had tricked him into revealing the information; it was darn near flawless. Finally, he displayed irritation and anger, ordering her to focus on looking for the evidence so he could avoid her barbs. I guess that is why he is such a good undercover agent. I would be shocked if Ziva didn't fall for is completely.

I was also really proud of Tony when he decided to go around to McGee's apartment to make sure he was alright… well, as much as one can be in that situation. Even though Tony's initial attempts to look after his probie were as awkward as heck, his heart was in the right and when push came to shove, he managed to drop his masks and reveal a little of his inner DiNozzo. She hoped Tim appreciated how special that made him and what it said about how much Tony cared. Tony might be totally clueless about how to deal with deep emotional angst in others, but he regarded Tim like a little brother and really made an effort. Of course, between his childhood upbringing, boarding schools, Military Academy from the age of twelve and the machismo of college fraternities and law enforcement, it wasn't surprising that he had difficulty expressing his emotions. It was really a wonder he was able to interact with people at all; if he ended up aping Gibbs' method of communication it would hardly be a surprise.

Hopefully, when he was in a better place, McGee would realise that Tony was so much more than his Very Special Agent role. I really hope he does and the next time that Tony is in trouble, and there will be a next time since he is such a trouble magnet, McGee will pay it forward instead of using the opportunity to slip the knife in.


	9. Chapter 9

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS only the idea for this story is mine nor I am making any money from it.

Any errors are my bad, of course.

Acknowledgements: Reviews are gratefully appreciated even if I can't always thank you all personally. Issuing a challenge to lurkers; I love hearing from you too so drop me a review or PM, it really is completely painless. Also thanks to those people who have already alerted and favourited the Angel Series. A year ago I posted my first story which was a three chapter tag for Boxed In. Now I feel like I have have come full circle in bringing you this 3 chapter tag for Boxed in from our favourite angel's point of view. I have also strayed a little in this 3- parter in that it is usually written in the first person from Cate's POV but there are other points of view in this tag. I hope you enjoy this one.

Angel Author's Note: This report is to the best of my ability and recollection, an accurate account of what occurred after Ari Haswari, decided to take my life to torture my boss Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs. My opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Guardian Angel Committee here at GA Central. - Respectfully Probationary Guardian Angel Caitlyn Todd

Anthony's Angels: Guardian Angel Caitlyn Todd

The Music Box

The four of them sat in the dark together, three silent sentries watching over the fourth who was scrunched up on the sofa, his legs drawn up to his chest as if protecting that most vulnerable and precious of organs that had been damaged so terribly already in his fairly short life. His arm which had been swathed in bandages as well as a sling, was now sans the sling and resting cautiously atop his knees as he sat, bathed in the silence. He was desperately trying to still the tsunami of emotions that threatened to overwhelm him, not to mention the pain filled memories of a lifetime of childhood neglect and abandonment. It surprised him that his exclusion from Ziva's little dinner party by his entire team hurt as much as it did, since he'd always been forgotten or deliberately excluded by people that were supposed to care about him. Why should this time be any different?

And yet apparently it was. They could all see it as they sat with him in his dark apartment; his defeated body posture, his lack of desire to change out of the clothes he'd been wearing since the early hours of this morning, when he'd been trapped in that damned box with Ziva. Nor did he make any attempt to go into the kitchen and get food or the vital water he needed so desperately to rehydrate after spending over twelve hours in a cold shipping crate with a crazy Mossad operative. Not to mention trying to stay one step ahead of a bunch of terrorists smuggling counterfeit currency, ending up in that final fire fight before Gibbs et al had followed the money trail and arrived in the nick of time. Despite having a headache of monumental proportions as a result of dehydration and being moderately hypoglycaemic from not eating all day and running on adrenaline, he couldn't bring himself to care about attending to his physical needs. He hadn't even bothered to switch on the heat when he came home; he was numb to his physical needs.

All of this I knew definitely, as she sat keeping silent sentinel over my former partner, thanks to the empathetic link I now shared with him and it left me in no doubt as to how low he really felt. I could 'feel' how the truth of last night's gathering and the resultant vindictive barbs which had revealed that the team had had a dinner and deliberately left him out, had devastated him. He was already physically exhausted even before they had taken such glee in letting him know, he hadn't been invited to what was clearly a team event. Even crueller were their actions, when you consider he was already hurting from the gunshot wound he'd sustained despite that mean little cow telling everyone Tony had gotten a scratch from a wooden packing crate. For Pete's sake, what self-respecting ER doc would send DiNozzo home with a sling if he just had a scratch from a splinter as Ziva had claimed? And how could anyone who called themselves an investigator believe her anyway. Or perhaps they all knew he'd really taken a through and through and were trying to torture the poor guy just that little bit more.

I wouldn't have believed that they would deliberately tease him about a gunshot wound but then again, if I hadn't seen the cruelty of them excluding him from their dinner party and how they revelled in revealing he'd been left out, I'd never have believed they would do that either. Unless I'd actually seen it, that is. Honestly, I really wished that I hadn't had to witness it because it sickened me that my second family…my friends, could be that horrible to someone who had their back and would die for any of them. He'd already proved that when he took McGee's place holding the trigger of that car bomb that Ari had planted and he'd ordered Tim and me to run. The joy, the smugness on McGee's face as he watched Tony learn the truth was vicious and ugly and I couldn't believe that the sweet probie could be so spiteful. Not to someone who has saved his life only a few weeks before. Boy had I overestimated the guy!

That Abby, my best friend would also engage in such malicious act was anathema to me too, even if Tony hadn't used his own body to shield her from Ari's bullets, when that maniac tried to kill her in her lab the night of my own death. When had she become so mean? And Gibbs…well Tony had Gibbs six, countless times since they'd joined forces. Like the time in Columbia when Gibbs depended upon Tony and I to take out that rogue CIA agent and save Gibbs and the Marine that they saved from being embalmed alive.

The fact that Ms David could be so venomous despite him saving her ass during their doomed undercover mission was not all that shocking for me, the probationary guardian angel. At least, not since Shannon had discovered that she wasn't being up front with Gibbs about her mission concerning Ari. I had no doubt that Ziva had orchestrated the whole 'let's leave DiNozzo out of the dinner party' scenario yet without having such willing participants, it wouldn't have come to pass. They'd all leap on the let's kick DiNozzo bandwagon.

I was not about to simply demonise Ms David and absolve the rest of the diners by giving them a free pass. She may have been the mastermind, the catalyst sure enough but just like a gun was only dangerous once it was loaded and someone actually aimed and fired it, Ziva could not have caused such devastation to Tony without the willing cooperation of the team. Even Gibbs appeared to take delight in rubbing Tony's nose in the fact he hadn't been there for the dinner and that was so out of character. Well not Gibbs finding ways to torture Tony because he did that frequently enough unfortunately, but Gibb engaging in social interactions with the team was most definitely out of character.

The whole time I'd been working with the team, apart from a couple of team sports matches against the FBI, Gibbs had never interacted with other NCIS agents, not even his team in a purely social setting. While the junior team members sometimes got together for drinks or dinner as a way of bonding and decompressing, Gibbs blew off the invitations to join them in favour of his red-headed 'dish' in the silver convertible or becoming one with his half built boat and to borrow from Billy Joel, making love to a bottle of bourbon. So, suddenly deciding to join the very event that had deliberately excluded his senior field agent seemed like one heck of a coincidence. Yet as anyone who has worked with Gibbs for longer than five minutes could tell you, he didn't believe in coincidences. So I could only conclude that it wasn't just a coincidence.

I reckoned that while it was very tempting to simply demonize my replacement and blame the whole back-stabbing affair on Officer David, it was also disingenuous. I was convinced that the whole sorry episode could not have occurred without the cooperation of the rest of the team. And that made me very, very mad even if she hadn't known about Tony's awful childhood, his neglectful parents and how lonely and unloved he'd felt his whole life. To do that to any member of the team that you expect to watch your six was unbelievably mean and cruel. But knowing what I did about the poor little rich kid and his intolerable childhood, yes I was incensed with my former teammates and longed to haunt them for all eternity and scare the pants off them for their cruel behaviour.

I knew that that my former team, if confronted with their nasty behaviour, would no doubt try to justify it by claiming that they were unaware of Ziva hidden agenda not to invited him to dinner but I didn't truly believe that for a moment. It beggared belief that Jimmy or Abby at the very least, wouldn't have mentioned it to Tony at some stage before the actual dinner and yet they had never said a word. And knowing Abby who was such a motor mouth she could talk underwater with a mouthful of marbles, I knew that her friend would have been running her mouth off about it like she did about her concerts and clubbing, when she often insisted that Tony act as her escort when she needed company. And if they tried to shift the blame solely onto Ziva by claiming that she'd told them that he was invited but had declined the invitation, then there was no reason not to mention the up-coming dinner in his presence if indeed that was the case and yet they'd all stayed mum about it, like it was top secret information. It was just too hinky for it not to be a deliberate attempt at exclusion.

Then there had been the looks of triumph by Ziva when the secret had been revealed in the bull pen, not to mention McGee's delight or the smirk on Gibbs' face as he casually dropped his bombshell and Abby's teasing too. I knew just as Tony did that this had been a team effort, to make him feel bad and it had succeeded spectacularly. As good as Tony was at masking his emotions, there had been a momentary lapse where his pain had been too great and he'd been so stunned at a time when he felt like he was safe to finally relax after such a crappy day.

While I wasn't going into fall into the trap of simply blaming Ziva for what was a team effort, I couldn't help but single Tim out for special treatment for how eager he'd been to stick the knife into Tony. It had been less than a week since Tim had been accused of shooting and killing a cop in an alley when they were on protection duty guarding Sec Nav after all. It wasn't his new best bud, Ziva David who'd believed him when he said that someone had shot at him in the Alley and he'd fired back in self-defence, even when they couldn't find the bullet to back up his claims. Nor had she believed in him when he'd begun to second guess himself or gone to his at home to help him fight his way through his fears, doubts and hopelessness.

It was Tony, who came to his apartment and offered up his unique style of support and caring, not Ziva, not Gibbs. Just like it had also been Tony who had supported the probie when Ari had killed me, making sure he faced his fears and found closure down in Autopsy. Tony was the nurturer of the team and I remembered how after I'd so badly misjudged the bomber Suzanne McNeil and stupidly invited her into my own home, how supportive he'd been as I coped with making such a monumental blunder by thinking she was an innocent victim when instead, she turned out to be a killer. He'd also been a rock to both me and Paula Cassidy during the spontaneous combustion case as we'd faced our own personal demons over the tragic death by cop of Ensign Evan Hayes. So this was the thanks he got from his team for saving their lives and supporting them when the going got tough.

Personally, I thought he deserved a ginormous big medal after having to not only cope with those dirtbags, today bent on killing him but also survive the histrionics of the Mossad Officer, whilst trapped in a small enclosed space. After all, she hadn't been exactly professional, having a freak out and firing her service weapon inside the metal box nearly taking Tony's head off. Seriously, who would be so dumb as to do something like that anyway? But then to come back to NCIS, to the place he considered his home, his sanctuary, exhausted and injured and have his so called team mates pull the rug out from under him, it was an inexcusably crappy way to treat anyone. Little wonder that he was sitting in a cold dark apartment, frozen with despair and trapped in his nightmarish memories of similar times at the hands of his so called parents.

And there he sat on the couch, trapped in his miserable memories, past and present, while we a trio of Guardian Angels sat in silent sympathy, wishing that there was a way we could somehow ease his pain but knowing that there wasn't. I was glad that I hadn't had to come here alone; that they had come with me to show solidarity after what had gone down in the bullpen earlier. I felt helpless in the face of Tony's emotions and appreciated that Shannon and Kelly were there for Tony even if he would never know it, yet their presence was at the same time uncomfortable, too. Shannon was beyond angry and I could see that the old chestnut about redheads and their temper's was not such an exaggeration after all. Still, Shannon's anger and disgust paled into insignificance in the face of the distress of poor little Kelly Gibbs. Tonight, she lost some of her childlike innocence and we mourned that loss of guilelessness and railed against those who had caused it.

I watched, as Kelly perched on the other side of the sofa beside Tony staring at him intently, her eyes filled with pain. While the little guardian angel and her mom didn't have an empathetic link to Tony like she did, just looking at him was enough to know without an iota of doubt, just how miserable he was. His suffering was clear for anyone to see, now that he was safe in his home where he could drop his mask and reveal his anguish. Of course Kelly had even more of an connection when it came to Tony. She thought of him as Superman and Captain America all rolled into one and the fact that he had been watching her beloved Daddy's six for some time now, plus her crush on him, made her especially sensitive to his moods and emotions. I watched with a lump in her throat as the little angel stroked his arm and his hair, wanting him to feel less alone. Watching Kelly, it reminded me of what Abby called stroking someone's aura and while it made me feel loving thoughts towards Gibbs' tender-hearted little daughter, it also made me scowl, thinking about my best bud and the rest of my old team and what they had done.

I wasn't sure if it was a coincidence or not but when Kelly first reached out her hand and started stroking above him, I felt him shiver but gradually I also felt a measure of peace settle upon Tony as some of his tortured thoughts stilled and he relaxed a mite. I looked across at Shannon but the petite redhead shrugged, her confusion indicating she was at a loss to explain Tony's reaction too. We watched, as Tony finally unfurled his long lankiness and found his way gracefully despite the darkness, to the baby grand piano that had belonged to his mother, once upon a time. Sitting down, he opened the keyboard and limbered up his long elegant pianist hands on scales before proceeding to play melancholy melodies, liltingly lyrical pieces that perfectly fit the mood in his apartment.

Kelly was watching him play, transfixed but with the most heartrendingly wistful expression on her young face, before she tentatively crossed to the piano and sat beside him on the piano stool, watching her hero as he played hauntingly sad piece after piece until he started playing the opening notes of a duet he used to play with his mother long ago. It was also the last piece that Kelly had been learning before Pedro Hernandez had cold bloodedly taken her life and that of her mother's,when Shannon had had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and see what she wasn't meant to see. Kelly's pretty rosebud of a mouth suddenly morphed into a joyous beam, when she began to play along with Tony in a duet that made Shannon and I shiver with the evocatively beautiful melody and the harmony that wove around the listeners.

I was aware, courtesy of our connection, how Tony was lost in the memories of his childhood where his mother was loving and nurturing and they spent precious, happy hours losing themselves in beautiful music together. In his head he could hear the descant part that his mother had always taken and which Kelly was now playing, although part of me wondered if it was his memories he was listening to or if he might really be hearing both parts played in his apartment with his boss' daughter and if that was so, how was it even possible? I stole a glance at Shannon, who had tears streaming down her face as she watched her daughter and Tony play together and she raised one eyebrow in acknowledgement of my unspoken question. Truly it seemed as if he could hear what we did, even if he thought it was a memory rather than a real time experience, even if I had no idea either. That was well beyond my ken.

When their duet finally finished, Tony sat, his head bowed, lost in bitter sweet memories of his mother but at least I decided, it was less pain-filled, calmer than his previous thoughts and emotions. Although his arm was pounding with an ache that was intense, I knew that he didn't regret playing for so long, even if he'd been instructed to rest his arm and keep it elevated. The feeling of calm was worth it and anyway, he had long understood that physical hurting was preferable to the pain that had been inflicted upon him by the people who were supposed to love and care about him. Tonight, the escalation of pain in his arm was pretty much a welcome distraction from the pain of betrayal. I could feel all of this as he sat beside his precious piano stroking the well-loved keys as he came to terms with his loss of faith in his friends.

* * *

The Music Box

* * *

When Cate finally arrived back at Guardian Angel Central, hours later, she wasn't at all surprised to be ambushed by a small whirlwind that was Kelly Ann Gibbs.

"Cate, Cate is my Tony Teddy-bear okay? Why did you leave him? Is he happy again? Should I go and stay with him?" she questioned eager to know how he was doing.

Shannon appeared too and hugged her emotional daughter and gave Cate a sad smile. "Whoa there, Kels! How 'bout you give Cate a chance to catch her breath, hey? C'mon Cate, let's all go out to the gardens and find some place comfy and you can give us a sit rep," she spoke calmly, her words belying the concern in her eyes. She knew her daughter was devastated and had many questions and frankly, she didn't feel up to having this discussion with her now or even ever. The problem was that signing up for parenthood meant being there for all the painful, embarrassing, heartbreaking times when you just wanted to shove your fingers in your ears and hum so you didn't hear the sobs, screams, tantrums and anguish.

This was going to be a long, long night. They didn't even face the prospect of delaying it with some pressing Guardian Angel duties, since Jethro was happily ensconced in his basement armed with his boat and his bourbon. There was no excuse, no escape and she sighed as she tried to summon every ounce of strength and wisdom she'd garnered over the years, to pilot her daughter through the next few hours. She really wanted to cause serious injury to her beloved husband right about now for causing their daughter so much angst and not even being here to try and fix the mess he'd left for her to deal with. She intended to send some seriously gut churning vibes via his empathic link in retribution. No one messed with their daughter and got away with it, not even Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

Being a parent completely sucked, she decided. Knowing that your child was going to suffer pain and not be able to protect them from the realisation that the world wasn't fair and the people you loved weren't perfect, was agonising. She watched as Cate followed them to a quiet corner where they could watch the night sky and feel the breeze that caressed them gently. She was feeling exhausted from the emotional maelstrom they'd all navigated while Tony had been trapped in the metal box, then in the bullpen and finally, later in Tony's apartment. Finally, after settling herself down, Shannon observed Cate as she smiled sadly at Kelly, preparing to answer Kelly's earlier questions, knowing instinctively they would be easy to answer in comparison to the ones that remained as yet unspoken.

"Hey there Kellsbells, Tony is asleep now, so I decided to come home for a while and check on you guys. And to answer your question about is he happy again, no he's not happy and I don't think he will be for a while Sweetie, but playing piano with you helped him feel a little bit better tonight. Have you done that before?"

"Nu uh Cate but I really wanted to play his piano so bad. It's sooo beautiful, it makes my heart sad and happy all at once when he plays it. I never knew a piano could make you feel that way."

Cate and Shannon exchanged pained looks before Kelly piped up again. "Cate, how can I make Tony feel happy again? I don't like it when he's sad."

Cate smiled at the little girl. "You're a kind person Kells and I don't like it when Tony is sad either but I don't think we can fix this anytime soon, honey." She glanced at her mom. "How does she know so much about Tony? She told me stuff about his childhood."

Shannon frowned, her daughter had always been insatiably curious. After all her father was Leroy Jethro Gibbs. "Miss Nosy Parker snuck up on Tony's last Guardian Angel before you came and read Tony's file over his shoulder. She's always been fascinated by him. I think that anyone with a modicum of empathy or an ounce of maternal instinct reacts to him on a visceral level; that they connect with the damaged little boy and want to mother him and make everything better for him, whether they are mortals or angels.

Cate nodded, although Shannon could tell her explanation had disturbed her. Realising that Cate was probably uncomfortable because she had always been so intolerant of Tony and had always felt way more irritation than empathy. Possibly, she was even wondering if she would have made a good mother, which was a heartbreaking and ultimately imponderable question and Shannon was sorry to have stirred that particular pot. They were interrupted in their reflections by the question she and Shannon had been most dreading.

"Mommy, Cate why was my Daddy and the rest of the team so mean to Tony, today? And he was hurt too," the pained earnest little face looking up at them was heartbreaking and heartbroken and neither woman knew what to say.

Shannon finally answered sadly, "I don't know sweetheart. I wish I did."

"I hated what Daddy and his team did today, Mommy. Do you remember when I had my seventh birthday and I wanted a Princess Jasmine party and I didn't wanna invite Penny Carter because she smelled like stinky old cheese?"

"Yeah Kelly, I remember."

"Do you remember what Daddy told me? He said I had to invite her if I was inviting all the other little girls in my class 'cause it was cruel to leave her out. He said that if I didn't invite her I couldn't invite anyone else and we'd just have a party for the family but none of my friends. He said Penny couldn't help it if she smelt like stinky old cheese." She frowned remembering how mean she thought her daddy was to make her invite stinky Penny to her Princess party.

"Tony doesn't smell like stinky old cheese does he Momma? And even if he did, they shouldn't have left him out of their party, anyway. They hurt his feelings and they made him really, really sad. Why would they do that to my Tony- bear?" Kelly was crying now and both women regarded her helplessly.

Shannon hugged her daughter tight as she answered. "You're right darling; it was very mean to not invite Tony and they hurt his feelings a lot. And no I don't think he smells like Stinky cheese but even if he did, that still isn't a good enough reason to leave him out of their party. I wish I knew what made them act like that Kells but ya know I don't think that anything they might say, could explain how they could be so mean. It was wrong and that's all there is to it, I'm afraid."

From the tense way she was holding herself, Shannon realised that her daughter hadn't finished venting her anger and betrayal just yet. As she stroked her daughter's hair and waited, she felt her little girl take a huge breath before whispering tentatively.

"Momma…"

"Yes Kelly."

"Promise you won't get mad at me?"

Shannon cursed her husband, having a fair idea what her child was so scared to tell her. "I promise darling."

"Is it okay to… to hate Daddy for what he did tonight?" She stared at her mother terrified she was going to get into trouble.

"If that's how you really feel baby, it's okay. But I think that you really mean though is that you hate what Daddy and his team did tonight. I hate what he did too, even though I don't hate Daddy but I'm still really, really mad with him right now." Shannon explained, her heart aching because Kelly thought the sun rose and set upon her father.

She'd always been a daddy's girl from the moment he'd held her, minutes after she was born and he was her ultimate hero who could do no wrong. To find out her father had feet of clay and was far from perfect was a terribly hard lesson for their daughter to have to come to terms. But to actually be confronted with it in such a brutal fashion, actually seeing such abject cruelty first hand, was hard enough for her to stomach and she'd long reconciled that Jethro wasn't a saint. Their daughter seeing him in full blown B for bastard mode though was extremely hard on their little girl.

"So Momma, you still love me, even if I hate my daddy right now?"

"I will always love you my darling daughter no matter what you do and so will your Daddy."

Cate watched as mother and daughter curled up together and closed their eyes taking comfort in each other, Even though Guardian Angels didn't technically require sleep, after such an emotional turmoil they were resting and she hoped they were taking solace from each other's presence.

* * *

The Music Box

* * *

It was several hours later that Shannon came looking for me, panicking because she couldn't find Kelly anywhere at Guardian Angel Central. After helping Shannon search everywhere again, I asked her if Kelly might have gone to visit her father and her mother admitted that she might even though she'd been so angry with him, especially since she was still so upset. So we went in search of Gibbs and not surprisingly found him resting underneath his half built boat, blissfully unaware of the emotional turmoil he'd created for his little daughter or his senior field agent, not to mention two peeving off two guardian angels. With her daughter still unaccounted for and knowing that Kelly was still struggling with her feelings, Shannon was almost frantic.

I had a sudden idea though. "Shannon, didn't you say that Kelly has a Tony-crush and spent a lot of time hanging out with him? She was really upset that he'd been hurt and she was worried about him being unhappy. What if she's gone to check up on him?"

By the time we arrived we could hear her childish voice crooning to a sleeping Tony DiNozzo in his still dark bedroom. "It's okay if you have to hate my Daddy and your team for leaving you out of the party Tony, but maybe you don't really truly hate Daddy or the team. Maybe you just hate what they did to you because that was just so mean and you don't even smell like stinky old cheese. I really like the way you smell, honest I do but even if you did stink, my Momma said that that was no excuse to not invite you to their party cause you're a part of the team. And I love the way you play the piano Tony and I loved playing with you. It made my heart so happy, it felt like it could burst. I hope we can play together again."

Kelly looked up and smiled at her mother and me her 'new' big sis. "Tony was having bad nightmares so I've been talking to him and telling him it's okay to hate people right now but we will always love him Momma, isn't that right?"

"Yes Kelly that's right." She watched as her little girl snuggled into Tony's side and nestled her head on his shoulder.

I shared bemused looks with her mother before I spoke sotto voce to my new best friend. "It's not possible for DiNozzo to feel Kelly stroking him and combing his hair, surely? Yet you saw what I did, he calmed down, he shivered even and when they were playing piano together, he could hear the music even if he thought what he was listening to was memories of the music he played with his mother. How is that even possible, Shannon?"

Shannon shrugged. "Theoretically it isn't possible Cate; at least it shouldn't be from my understanding of how things are supposed to work. All I can say is that the power of love should never be underestimated. Especially the love of a child!


	10. Chapter 10

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS only the idea for this story is mine nor I am making any money from it.

A/N Thanks have to go to Catsmeou for suggesting I continue the Music Box after she read it a while ago and so The Angel's Requite was conceived. Thanks muchly as usual to Arress for her beta with this chapter and insights as well. Any errors are my bad, of course. Just wanted to thank everyone who left the heartfelt reviews for the last chapter. There is still so much much anger about the terrible cruelty that took place at the end of the episode, rightly so and rationalizing the behaviour is almost as bad as the act of writing the scene, IMHO. So I hope you enjoy the girls getting some of their own back.:D

Angel Author's Note: This report is to the best of my ability and recollection, an accurate account of what occurred after Ari Haswari, decided to take my life to torture my boss Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs. My opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Guardian Angel Committee here at GA Central. - Respectfully Probationary Guardian Angel Caitlyn Todd

Anthony's Angels: Guardian Angel Caitlyn Todd

The Angel's Requite

Post Shipping Crate Day 1

"Can you swing it so that Tony takes a couple of days off work, Cate?"

"Well if we're lucky he'll take at least a couple, Shan. Spending all day in that shipping crate wasn't the best prescription for his lungs. Being frozen for hours and then following it up getting shot wasn't exactly what Brad Pitt recommended when he told him he needed to look after himself because his immune system was impaired by the Y-Pestis. I can already sense the tightening in his chest and he's been wheezing in his sleep so with luck he'll call in sick."

I could feel Shannon staring at me in much the way a cat watches a mouse. "What are you looking at me like that for? You're creeping me out."

Shannon couldn't keep the exasperation out of her voice. "How long were you two partners? And how many times did Tony call in sick? And how long did he take off after practically dying of the plague? Did he not come back one week early? So, Cate, do you really think that he's likely off his own bat, to call in sick?"

So now I felt like an idiot. "Okay, I admit that that was not my most intelligent suggestion, but how the heck am I supposed to make sure he doesn't go into work. AND, Shannon, what are you up to anyway?"

"Okay first off, you can start sending down feelings of doubt via the link to countermand the self-talk he does to tell himself he's *fine*. Convince him he's not fine. You could send him a suggestion to call Ducky and ask his opinion. You could switch off his alarm, I'm sure after the night he's had he'll sleep in." She stopped noticing Cate's expression. "What?"

"He was up at five, couldn't sleep. Nightmares." I reported.

"Okay well plan A or B then or both! And I just want to organise a little divine retribution for Kelly and Tony for the team and I don't want Tony caught in the fallout."

"Oh goody, that sounds great! What do you have in mind?"

"A few things, dearie; I'm going to create a conditioned taste aversion to coffee in L.J. for starters." Shannon smiled wickedly, pleased to hear the gasp from the other angel.

"You're planning on breaking Rule #23? Are you nuts, woman? What happens when the biggest caffeine fiend I've ever seen starts going through withdrawal? He's going be like living with ten ravenous angry bears." I was flabbergasted at Shannon's audacity and her nerve.

"Not just break it, Cate, busting it wide open. Hence my desire to make sure Tony isn't part of the domino effect."

I was still shell shocked by the idea of messing with Gibbs' coffee. But Shannon had mentioned other plans and I couldn't contain my curiosity.

"So what other wickedly Machiavellian ideas have you dreamed up, Shannon Gibbs?"

"Well, *I* don't have any more plans for Jethro, but I thought I might create some havoc with the team. A catastrophic failure here and there could be fun since we can affect electronics or electrical equipment." Shannon confessed rather coyly refusing to be drawn on details.

"I haven't learnt how to do that yet." I admitted regretfully.

"Shannon smiled, "Well there's no time like the present. It takes a while to master, but I'll show you how so you can get started. It's like anything worthwhile. It takes time to control it, but it can be really useful skill to have at times when we are doing our job. But first things first, Girl; go and make sure that Tony takes the next few days off. In every way, it's better for his health that he rests at home.

I visited Tony's apartment, conscious that even in the space of an hour, Tony's physical condition deteriorated, which was both good and bad. Good since it would make it easier to influence him into calling in sick and bad because I really didn't want to have to watch him battle for every breath like before. What had started out as a something of a prank was now suddenly serious.

Knowing too well his tendency to downplay his own illnesses and injuries, which had always driven her nuts before because I had assumed it was just macho poop, but which I finally understood, was a complex combination of his fear of being thought of as weak and his pathological desire to please anyone that he sought to impress. For those individuals, and read Gibbs in that category, he would literary kill himself attempting to please. Both of these destructive traits could be traced back to a father who was constantly admonishing a small child against showing weakness, alternatively ignoring and neglecting him, and at intervals demanding unquestionable blind obedience and loyalty.

Sending down strong feelings that he wasn't really fine and needed to take action, I couldn't help but grimace, battling the feeling of not having adequate amounts of air that he was already experiencing and feel his determination to convince himself he was really well enough to go in to work. Metaphorically gritting my teeth, I redoubled the efforts to convince DiNozzo he had to take this seriously, so I decided to play dirty, knowing his weaknesses. Flashing mental images of him under the blue lights of the isolation chamber where he was bathed in fever and drowning in fluid building up in his own lungs, I kept up the pressure until I finally let up and flashed the suggestion he call Brad or Ducky and ask their advice.

Even with my determination and the fact that he was not looking forward to having to face the rest of the team, I wasn't sure that I'd have won this particular battle if Tony hadn't been overcome by a violent paroxysm of coughing that eventually left him feeling weak and breathless. It was after that choking fit that I followed through with the 'I told you, you aren't fine and you'd better ask for help' message and cheered when I saw Tony reached for his phone and the speed dial for Ducky.

"Hey Ducky, I'm sorry to bother you this early in the morning. Not a call out; just needed some advice. Woke up this morning having trouble breathing, tight chest and sounding wheezy. Guess it got pretty cold in the box yesterday and I'm just wondering if I need to make an appointment after work or am I being a wimp?"

"No, Ducky, I don't sound that bad, although I guess you would be more qualified to know exactly what death warmed over sounded like. Okay, I'll call Brad. Aw, do I have to take time off…" he broke off for another episode of coughing... "Sorry 'bout that. Yeah, okay, I'll call after I see him. But, Ducky, I might as well be at work on desk duty as lying round at home… Yeah, okay… okay, I'll go home and rest like a very good special agent. Tell ya what… you get to break the news to Gibbs…okay, thanks."

I smiled to myself, relieved to not let Shannon down. I wondered what she meant by the cryptic comment that she didn't have anything else planned for Gibbs. Frankly, making him aversive to his coffee was huge on its own, but it sounded like someone was going to be messing with him. I was rather looking forward to the ensuing chaos since the team wouldn't know what hit them, but I was wishing I could also help get some revenge on the team, even if it wasn't very angelic behaviour.

Ducking down to the NCIS bullpen, it was all still silent and calm. I smirked because calm was probably not an adjective that would be applied for much longer. Deciding to go and track down the puppet master and see if Shannon would be less close-mouthed about what she was planning, I resolved to come back later to watch the fun. Stopping for a flying visit, I checked on Tony, who had given in to the inevitable and gone back to bed for a while before calling Brad to make an appointment.

Returning to Guardian Angel Central, I tracked Shannon down and reported mission accomplished. "Okay, Shan, done, but he was a hard nut to crack. And that's when he didn't even really want to go in today, lucky he wasn't all fired up or I would have failed miserably."

"Okay, good. Then it's all systems go."

"Shannon, what did you mean when you said you weren't planning on doing anything else to Gibbs? Is else is planning something?"

Shannon sighed, looking sad. "Kelly wants to have a chat with her dad about leaving Tony out of the team party." She saw the confusion on her new friend's face. "Kelly will talk to him during his dreams while he's sleeping?"

Cate looked shocked, "We can do that?"

"Sure, why not."

"Because, I thought we weren't supposed to let mortals know of our existence?" Cate protested.

"Ah, but that's the beauty of popping into mortals' dreams, which is why it's permissible, and not just for Guardian Angels either. It's known as plausible deniability because everyone brushes it off as a really vivid dream, not that they saw a ghost, dead person or an angel." Shannon smiled like something had just occurred to her.

Cate poked her, "What? You're planning something else."

"Not exactly, Cate, I was just thinking how much I'd relish spending a night invading Ziva David's dreams and letting her know that I know what she and her father are up to."

"Wow, we can do that with people who we don't guard?" Cate looked excited.

Well, yeah, like I said any spirit can, as long as we don't abuse the privilege. I visit my mom Joanne sometimes, on her birthday or mine."

"So, I could visit the team and tear them a new one for leaving Tony out and taunting him about it? Like something out of a Dickens?" She enquired, her mind already firing up with the possibilities.

Shannon smiled in approval. "Sure, we could even do a ghost of Christmas past, present and future between us. Can we play, too?"

Shannon, Kelly and myself were sitting quietly on the steps above the bullpen watching Gibbs sipping his coffee. Each time he took a sip Shannon would send a feeling of intense dread to Gibbs via the empathetic link they shared. After every sip he had taken to rubbing his chest and getting antsy. As the team slowly trickled in, he became progressively grouchier. I smirked, watching the expressions on the junior agents' faces, and it was only 0815 and so many more hours to go. Apparently, McGee agreed because he opened the instant message feature.

ElfLord: Where's DiNozzo?

NinjaChick: Y ask me?

ElfLord: Y drove him home.

NinjaChick: He winged out on me

ElfLord: Wimped not winged

NinjaChick: Wat eva

ElfLord: Hope he gets here soon. Gibbs'll start head slapping us if he doesn't

NinjaChick: Mmm betta his head than mine

ElfLord: Amen to that

Ducky approached their area, watching Gibbs rubbing his sternum as he sipped his huge cup of coffee, an odd expression on his face.

"Is something wrong, Jethro? Are you having any chest pains?" he enquired solicitously, mindful of his duties as the only doctor that the irascible agent would allow to oversee his health. Ducky took his responsibilities seriously as a physician, even if he wasn't happy with his long time friend's behaviour. Why he and his team decided to perpetrate such a mean act upon another team member he couldn't fathom.

"I'm fine, Ducky. What are you doing up here?" he asked grumpily. Don't ya have something better to do than check up on me?

"I asked him to meet me here, Special Agent as I needed same clarification on an issue that concerns the MCRT." Jenny Shepard, the new Director leaned casually against Tony's desk and regarded the three members of the MCRT sternly.

"Dr. Mallard, I received your email this morning informing me you have ordered Special Agent DiNozzo out on medical leave. My understanding from Officer David and Special Agent Gibbs was that he wasn't seriously injured yesterday. I believe that his arm wound is simply a superficial scratch from a splinter off one of the wooden packing cases inside the shipping crate? Why is he being placed on medical leave?"

I had a feeling this conversation had already been played out before and this was a piece of one upmanship from a woman who was clearly unhappy about not being kept informed.

Ducky stared at her intently. "I'm afraid you have been misinformed, my dear Director," I smirked; only Ducky could get away with addressing the woman thusly.

"Anthony receive a gunshot wound, which while only a through and through not requiring surgery, nevertheless required stitching and a sling to immobilise it while it heals. However, it was being trapped in the crate all day with the extremely cold temperature which probably helped stress his weak immune system. It is only a few months since he recovered from the plague, after all. Anthony called me this morning, which in itself is a minor miracle, having difficulty breathing and I suspect he has bronchitis or a chest infection. So I insisted he go and get checked over by his pulmonologist and I have requested a copy of his medical report. I'll keep you informed, Director."

Jenny Shepard looked across at Gibbs, frowning. "Why didn't you know about this Gibbs?"

Clearly she was not a happy camper. Judging by the scowl on his face, Gibbs wasn't really thrilled either at being out of the loop.

* * *

The Angel's Requite

* * *

Day 2 post shipping container

"Hey Abby, Gibbs wants to know if you've managed to work on the damaged cell phone?" McGee asked the Forensic Goth when he'd managed to get her attention.

"No, Timmy. Gibbs always knows when I have something. Why did he send you down here when I've got nothing? That's hinky." Abby frowned, worried. Somehow everything just seemed off since Ziva and Tony were trapped in the shipping container two days ago, and Abby didn't like hinky.

"Don't know, Abby, but you're right, Gibbs is acting weird. He's also acting really strangely around coffee, too. It's making him all anxious and sweaty like he wants to drink it, but… I don't know, it makes him uncomfortable or something. He barely had two cups all day and he is in withdrawal. Ziva and I are getting headaches from all the head slaps, I swear. I wish DiNozzo would come back and run interference for us. He's used to getting head slapped," he whined as he paced round the lab. As he past the mass spectrometer it started beeping wildly and the error light started flashing.

"What did you do to Major Mass Spec, Timmy?" Abby demanded harshly. Her babies were all acting hinky today, just like Gibbs.

"Nothing, I didn't do a thing, I just walked past it," McGee protested testily.

"Well you must have thought bad thoughts then. The Major's been acting all temperamental today, so stop it." She punched his biceps to emphasize the point when she saw him getting ready to argue and then he shrugged.

Thinking about what McGee had said about Tony, she asked worriedly, "Have you heard when Tony's coming back to work?"

"McGee looked aggrieved, "Not soon enough to save me head from a massive headache. He won't be back 'til Monday. I don't know whether to hope for a case or pray that it stays quiet." He noticed that Abby looked drawn and had dark circles under her eyes. "Something wrong, Abby?"

"Bad dream, Tim. About that damned dinner party, so maybe it's karma. Did you see how devastated Tony looked? I feel horrible for what we did."

She remembered the dreams that had haunted her last night, unable to get the memory of her best girl-friend, Caitlyn Todd, another beautiful woman with auburn hair and a little girl with long chestnut-brown hair with coppery highlights and the bluest eyes who had been in her dreams last night. Dream Cate was furious with her for going along with the mean trick to leave Tony out of Ziva's team dinner, and she reminded Abby that Tony had always been left out or forgotten by his parents as a child and she gave her a dressing down that only the snarky –tongued profiler could manage. Ziva had claimed that she'd wanted to take him down a peg or two after he took down that dirtbag in the hotel while he was tied to the chair and wouldn't stop crowing about it.

Looking at it now, that rationale for playing the prank seemed petty, and mean especially since Tony had had a really hard time lately. He'd nearly died with the plague and a car bomb then was standing beside his partner, Cate, when she died, he'd been framed for murder, and now he'd been shot, too, while in the crate. It all just seemed way too vindictive to leave him out and then rub his nose in it; what the Hell had she been thinking when she agreed to go along with it? It was that damned mob mentality where it felt good to gang up on someone else, and didn't that make her a mean cold-hearted bitch.

In her dream, Cate had reminded her that she owed her own life to Tony, who had saved her from Ari's bullets, and Abby remembered how he'd shielded her body with his own as he pushed her to the ground and covered her. How he would have willingly died for her and how he'd been her rock when she tried to deal with Cate's death, how he was there for her as she tried to deal with her grief. Then the little girl with the strangely familiar blue eyes informed her that when Tony had refused to let her drive home last week when she had drunk too much and been sleep deprived that if "Her Tony-bear" had let her drive home she would have had a terrible accident and the other driver would have died. She remembered the night they'd been out after the end of a child kidnapping case where she'd let off a little too much steam at their regular watering hole. How McGee had told her not to drive and how she'd assured him she would be fine and glared at him and Tim had backed off, since he was always hoping that she'd agree to rekindle their affair and didn't want her to be pissed at him.

It meant she could usually manipulate him like a piece of clay, which was ironic since it was probably why they had broken up in the first place. Unlike Tony who despite her throwing a monumental hissy fit and not talking to him for twenty-four hours, he'd confiscated her car keys and dropped her home in a taxicab. The little girl with those annoyingly familiar eyes took her to the scene of an accident to prove the point, where her beloved hearse was wrapped around a Toyota hatchback and a gurney with a body bag was being wheeled away and the LEOs discussing blood alcohol levels, micro-sleeps and negligent driving. And a distraught and bloodied Abby had been arrested.

Then the stunning red head who'd no doubt turn the head of her Silver Fox if they ever met, warned her if they didn't mend their ways they would lose Tony and that would break up the team. She then showed her a scene where Gibbs resigned and Director Shepard spilt up the two remaining team members because neither Ziva or McGee had the skill, experience or seniority to lead the team. McGee was transferred back to Norfolk and Ziva disappeared off to do spy stuff once more. And before her dream ended, the auburn-haired spitfire warned her that Gibbs and a civilian would die at some time in the future if Tony wasn't there to save their lives, because there probably wasn't anyone else who was stubborn enough not to give up when faced with an impossible situation. Meanwhile, Cate just kept standing there watching her, shaking her head and staring at her so disappointedly, asking why she would do that to Tony?

Abby had woken up from her dream, unable to go back to sleep and feeling like the worst person in the world. When she'd talked to Ducky about her dream this morning, she'd expected him to be more compassionate since he'd helped her with her autopsy phobia. He'd listened impatiently and then suggested her dream might be the result of a guilty conscience.

As McGee sighed and figured he'd been down in the lab as long as possible before Gibbs would tear him a new one and then head slap him silly. Kissing the Goth he leant in and squeezed her hand. "It's Tony, he's always teasing everyone. What goes around comes around."

As he walked past the fingerprint scanner, it started shrieking and the smoke poured out before it exploded. Seeing Abby's expression, he beat a hasty retreat.

"Honest Abby, I didn't do anything!"

* * *

The Angel's Requite

* * *

I hunkered in the corner with Shannon and Kelly watching as Abby finally got her Major and the rest of her babies all recalibrated and settled down and smirked at how good I was getting at sending the lab equipment hinky. Still not entirely sure that it was okay to go around creating mayhem, I couldn't help but double check.

"Are you sure we should be doing this, Shannon?"

She smiled at me tolerantly. "You were always the goody-two-shoes at school, weren't you, Cate? Yeah, I'm sure. We are only messing with her 'babies' when the team is here. If she is working on a proper case with another team then all bets are off and we haven't broken anything."

"But what about the cell phone that McGee was talking about?" I objected guiltily, wondering what the punishment would be for interfering in a case.

Shannon chuckled and Kelly giggled. "It's Daddy's cell phone, Cate. He asked Abby to get his address book because he wants to call his girlfriend and he smashed his phone, you know the lady that drives the silver car with the top off?"

Shannon's eyes danced with mischief. "Kelly and I don't think that he should get to go on a date after his bad behaviour, and anyway, with him not able to drink coffee, we thought the redhead would appreciate their shielding her from a caffeine-deprived Jethro."

* * *

The Angel's Requite

* * *

Day Three Post Shipping Container

Gibbs started at his cup of coffee, his body crying out for the caffeine hit that it so sorely needed, but he knew that when he took a sip it would make him feel really bad, like his gut was telling him that something awful was going to happen. He didn't know whether caffeine withdrawal was worse than his feeling of impending doom when he drank coffee, but it sure had made him a tad short tempered and he wished Tony wasn't off sick so he could pick up the slack. Not to mention the fact that he usually did the majority of his paperwork for him in the interests of keeping peace in the bullpen. Monday couldn't come fast enough.

Gibbs really wished they'd get a case that he could get his teeth into and take his mind off what had happened last night. Maybe he should give up drinking bourbon since it had given him the worst nightmare he'd had for ages. Not the worst ever but thankfully, the dreams of Kelly and Shannon's death had subsided over the years, except when a really bad case which reminded him of his girls brought it all back again. Now when he had dreams about his girls, it was happy memories or dreams where they just hung out together at the beach, slept under the stars together, ate way too many triple chocolate pancakes and some of his fondest times, Kelly hugging and kissing him. So the dream last night where she had been angry with him had shaken him badly. And if that wasn't bad enough, she'd finally thrown herself at him, sobbing with rage and pounding her small fists on his chest and screeching about Penny Carter, stinky cheese and being mean to her Tony-bear.

None of which made any sense to him since he was positive that Kelly had never had a stuffed toy named Tony-bear, although Penny Carter and stinky cheese rang a very distant bell. Trying to decide whether to brave another sip of coffee, he deliberately focused on Penny Carter and stinky cheese instead and suddenly remembered a conversation that he'd had with Kelly just before her eighth birthday. They were sitting on the back steps and his daughter was pouting, trying to get him to change his mind, since Shannon and him had told their Little Princess that she had to invite all the other girls in her class to her birthday party. In fact, they had made it very clear to her that she couldn't not invite Penny Carter when she was inviting everybody else. Kelly had thrown the mother of all tantrums; sulked, wheedled, cried piteously, explained earnestly that Penny smelt like stinky old cheese and nobody would play with her.

He and Shannon had been firm though and explained that it wasn't Penny's fault if she smelt bad and that she probably needed a friend even more than anyone. They tried to explain that it was really mean to leave someone out of her party when everyone else was coming. Kelly was stubborn though (she got that from Shannon) ow, why did he feel bad when he hadn't drunk any coffee? So when Kelly refused to give in, they had told her that she could only have a birthday party with Shannon and him and Maddie's family since they were like family. After a fresh round of tantrums she'd finally given in and agreed to invite Penny Carter and they'd breathed sighs of relief, but were quietly proud that they had taught Kelly that it was mean to exclude people. But why he would dream about that of all things and what the hell was a Tony-bear and what had he to do with Kelly's party?

Watching McGee having a meltdown because his computer had frozen again despite him pulling it apart numerous times already and finding nothing wrong again, he wondered if the Gremlins had gotten into the machines since Abby was complaining about her equipment . When he'd taken her a Caf-Pow earlier this morning, Major Mass Spec had acted up when he walked past and Abby had yelled at him, accusing him of upsetting her babies. Ziva was ready to shoot her phone which was making the most annoying shrieking and high pitched whines, especially whenever she was speaking to her foreign contacts. If he believed in all that new age crap that Abby went on about, he'd think that the team had walked under a ladder or broke a mirror or something. Giving himself a mental shake, he told himself to get a grip.

Returning to the puzzle of what the dream meant, his famous gut swung into gear after being silent for days, well, if you didn't count acting hinky when he was around coffee. Gibbs never told anyone, but his famous gut sometimes manifested itself as his beloved wife and today his gut it would seem was in a particularly acerbic mood, which was probably just coffee withdrawal, not that he was addicted or anything. Still, his gut had sarcastically inquired did he really not see a connection between teaching Kelly that it was cruel to exclude her peers from her party and then being a complete bastard and hypocrite and leaving Tony out of a team dinner? Suddenly he realised his daughter had been talking about his SFA Tony, but there was no way that his subconscious would come up with a nickname like 'My Tony-bear', that was plain stupid. For the first time, Gibbs was glad that Kelly wasn't around to see him in his 'do as I say not as I do' mode. He did figure that his daughter would have probably loved Tony if she knew him.

Angry with the whole damned world, he took a huge gulp of coffee without thinking and as soon as he swallowed he felt like he'd been punched in the chest with the feeling of revulsion he felt at the taste of his usual poison. Maybe it was time to ask Ducky's opinion – on the weird reaction he was having to coffee, not his freaked out dreams, since he couldn't talk to him about Shannon and Kelly. No one at NCIS knew and that was the way he liked it, but then again, he liked his dreams where he and his girls hung out together, they were precious memories he carried in his heart, but it almost felt like they were still alive. He hoped that last night's interlude was not going to be a recurring theme.

* * *

The Angel's Requite

* * *

I looked at our smallest angel, who was clearly still pretty angry at her father, watching him sitting staring glumly at his coffee. Shannon was fuming too, glaring at Gibbs.

"I think perhaps we both need to have a good talk to him tonight, since he is insisting on acting so dense. The man can be as stubborn as a dang mule and I think he needs to be hit over the head with the truth a couple more time, til he decides to step up and take notice. He hates to admit even to himself that he's being an ass..." looking at their daughter, " umm being an asinine idiot and I think Kells needs some more closure." Shannon confided to me, clearly exasperatedly.

I looked at Shannon and Kelly wanting to temper their tense and angry mood so I decided to do a DiNozzo and relieve the tension a little. Concentrating, I managed to ring Ziva's phone and when she picked up the receiver Kelly grinned and white noise erupted from the phone, blasting in her ear and prompting her to launch into a stream of what I guess was Hebrew profanity. Then she slammed the phone down hard enough to crack the handset. Kelly started giggling and soon all three of us were rolling around laughing.

"Good job, Cate. You're getting so good at making electronics work for you," my surrogate liitle sis crowed delightedly. "Do it again!"


	11. Chapter 11

Day 4 Post Shipping Crate

I stopped off to check on Tony on my way to NCIS and found that he was following Brad Pitt' s advive, the doctor that is to rest and drink plenty of fluids. He was even sounding less wheezy and although bored was still working his way through his Magnum DVDs so I left him to it. I felt a bit guilty about admitting it but I was enjoying making my former team mates miserable for what they'd done andI wanted to make sure I got there with plenty of time to spare

* * *

The Angel's Requite

* * *

McGee was glad to get away from the bullpen for lunch since everybody was irritable. Even Abby was cranky, clucking about doing wrong by Tony and uttering daft stuff about bad ju-ju and karma and how her babies going all hinky on her was the universe getting even. She'd even started keeping a frequency distribution graph for Pete's sake, monitoring who had been in the vicinity of her lab equipment when things went haywire. Between her idea that her 'babies' were reacting badly to the team or the team were deliberately hurting them, the lab was not the comforting place where Tim could find a few minutes of sanctuary from Gibbs' ill-temper that he was accustomed to. Usually Abby would cosset him and give him hugs, but when he turned up this morning, Abby had practically snarled at him. Of course, the fact that she had just recalibrated Major Mass Spec and it malfunctioned again may not have helped her mood any.

Tim really wanted to talk to her about the frustrating issues he was having with his computer and the way it kept freezing all the time. When he tried to talk to her about it though, she just growled at him and told him that someone who had a degree in computer science from MIT should be able to fix a teeny tiny computer glitch and when he was going to explain that it was more than a glitch since he couldn't find anything wrong, she sniffed and said she had her own problems and to chat to the geeks in cyber-crimes or IT Support, which was all well and good, but he didn't want to have to admit that a computer issue had bested him. He did have a reputation to maintain and he thought she would understand that.

Feeling hurt because Abby had never been cross with him before, he was about to try to explain why he really didn't want to go there when Ziva rang to let him know that Gibbs was demanding that he get his ass upstairs before he fired it. Gibbs was a nightmare, his anger seemed barely contained and he'd already given him several really hard heap slaps that probably robbed him of valuable brain cells, and if Tony didn't get back soon then Tim figured he'd be as dumb as his senior field agent. Maybe Tony had started out as a genius before he joined the team, but with all the Gibbs' slapping, he ended up stupid. Tim giggled as he made his way back to his desk,_ nope DiNozzo had always been a big dumb jock, Phys Ed. major, remember?_

"Something amusing you'd like to share, Elf Lord. I'm sure Ziver would appreciate a good laugh and I could do with one, too." Gibbs barked as McGee sobered as if someone had poured iced water over him.

"No Gibbs, Boss, Sir… I was just thinking about something Abby said," he lied frantically, thinking _'smooth Tim, real smooth'_. Damn it, Gibbs was a real bear on steroids this week. Yesterday, Ducky had made him go and have an x-ray and a barium swallow plus a swag of blood tests, and they were waiting to hear the results which hadn't improved his mood at all. Since the boss still seemed to be experiencing discomfort whenever he drank coffee, he had been sitting on the one cup all morning and experiencing extreme caffeine withdrawal, heck, they were all suffering from Gibbs' caffeine withdrawal, and the computer whiz kid wished he was sick like Tony. Some people have all the luck.

Ziva scowled and looked at Gibbs before directing her fierce brown eyes onto McGee maliciously, obviously deciding to join Gibbs in ganging up on the luckless third member of the team. It seemed that Ziva ascribed to the maxim, misery loves company by stating, "I would appreciate being able to blow off heat with a good laugh, too, Gibbs."

Rolling his eyes because Tim realised that when it came to a choice between watching his six or chucking him under the bus to save herself, Ziva would shove him every time. Sure, when the going was good, she could charm the pants off him if she'd wanted to since he was half terrified of her and the other lower half was in lust over her overt sexuality that made Cate seem like a frumpy repressed older sister. Yet he realised now that when push came to shove, the Mossad officer was a lone wolf by training and would look after number one first.

So, because he couldn't tell them what he'd really been laughing at without earning the mother of all head slaps, he shared Abby's hinky theory that it was the MCRT personnel who were causing her babies to freeze and need recalibration. According to her frequency distribution graph, the only time her babies were acting hinky was when Gibbs, Ziva or himself entered the lab, but when other agents visited her, the equipment was fine. Ziva smirked at the idea, but there was a flicker of something for a split second before it disappeared into cynical impassiveness. Gibbs simply scowled and yelled at them to stop wasting time and followed it up with a mother of all head slaps for both of them.

Now that Tim was granted a measly twenty minutes to fetch lunch for the team, even though they were currently on cold cases, Tim could feel his muscles relax as he finally got away from the tense oppressive atmosphere of the bullpen. If only DiNozzo was here to act like an idiot and make sure Gibbs let off steam. He really didn't know if he could make it 'til Monday when Tony was supposed to come back. He was also trying really hard not to think about his dream-riddled night which, while they could not be said to be nightmares from any standpoint, the content was still disturbing. Last night he'd dreamt of Caitlyn Todd, and while it wasn't the first time he'd dreamt of her, up 'til now it had always been dreams of her death, even though he hadn't witnessed it first-hand. Last night, though, she had been really cranky with him and she had a strange woman and a child with her and they'd been angry, too.

Cate had got up close and personal, into his space telling him how angry she was that he decided to be a mean prig for leaving Tony out of a team dinner, and then takong delight in making sure that he knew he'd been left out. She reminded him that Tony had saved her and Tim from the car bomb and then instead of thanking him they'd both taunted and tormented him and laughed at him when he tried to talk about his life-threatening illness. She scowled at him and told him that if Tony hadn't been such a workaholic, she wouldn't be the only one that was dead, he and Abby would have died, too.

Then the little girl took him back to the night just last week when he'd been plunged into a depths of despair after he had shot the Metro PD detective and Tony came over to make sure he was alright. The little girl frowned at him, "You were thinking you should leave the team and even not be an agent anymore until my Tony-bear told you that even he was scared when he was just starting out and then he made you have some dinner and stayed with you to make sure you were okay. Why were you so mean to not invite him to your party, Timmy? It's not nice and I don't think your momma would be very proud of you at all." Her bright blue eyes flashed with a fire that infuriated him with their familiarity. Where had he seen those eyes before?

Meanwhile, the petite woman with the auburn hair had smiled coldly and quipped. "That's right, McGee, I guess I'm the ghost of Christmas future. This is what happens when you attend a crime scene where someone has been blown up on board a ship and you are called in to process the crime scene and you can't … well, take a look for yourself."

He found himself observing Ziva, Tony and himself on board a ship called the Bakir Kamir. Gibbs was nowhere around and Tony was giving orders, _typical he thought,_ and Ziva was telling him that he had to suck it up and go into the crime scene. Since she had lots of experience with bomb sites, she was completely unsympathetic about his queasiness, but Tony was surprisingly empathetic, understanding that as much as he wanted to go in there, the Future Tim couldn't make himself step inside. Tony ordered him to go and collect the dead seaman's kit from his quarters to take back to Abby for examination. Instead of making fun of his squeamishness to Ziva, the Future Tony had tried to brush it off that he was giving him the sucky probie job not because he felt sorry for him but because it was probie work. The apparition frowned before scolding, "and he never tried to make you feel bad about it or joked either because he believes in Rule #1 unlike his team!"

Then the feisty woman whisked him off even further into the future she said, taking him first to the bullpen in the year 2008 and Ziva and Tony were waiting for him to arrive because him running late after getting stuck in traffic. They then were in a DC street at a crime scene where Gibbs was waiting impatiently for his team to arrive to process the scene because an NCIS agent had been murdered. She pointed out that being late to a crime scene was a sure fire way of making Gibbs' blood pressure shoot through the roof or murder a few trillion brain cells of his luckless agents when he head slapped them into oblivion.

When they pulled up with the crime scene truck, even before Gibbs had a chance to get stuck into anyone for keeping him waiting or before the Future Tim had a chance to admit that it was his fault they were late, Tony leaped in and took responsibility for being late. Then Future Tim, instead of thanking his immediate superior for taking the heat for him again, had instead churlishly demanded to know why he'd taken the blame. The woman who had christened herself as the Ghost of Christmas Future looked at him sternly and warned that Tony could easily decide that the grass was greener elsewhere and that this week was a tiny taste of how it would be if Tony was no longer around to run interference for him anymore. She finished off by observing that for all the whining he did about Tony's teasing, it sure seemed to be that Tony had been a darn sight more touchy feely than either of his teammates. In fact, she pointed out that McGee was certainly not big on reciprocity when it came to supporting his team, especially Tony, and that the dinner party might well be the final straw.

Tim had woken up feeling disgruntled, tired and chastised by his dreams, and he didn't like it. He didn't like that his subconscious had obviously been influenced by Abby's prattle about Tony's hurt feelings, and he especially didn't like the fact that Cate and her ghostly spectres had made him feel guilty like a naughty child. Most of all though, the very thought that Tony might decide to leave them with Gibbs in his current pissy mood for a minute longer than absolutely necessary was enough to cause a mild panic attack. Was DiNozzo even sick at all or was this simply payback? As bad as that would be, what if he did leave the team because he had had to cop a lot of crap lately and then their dinner minus him, was it enough to make him leave? He knew now that unless Gibbs had a personality transplant, he couldn't cope with him if DiNozzo wasn't there. He'd have to leave, too.

Grabbing their lunch order, Tim realised that unless he ran all the way back he would be late and Gibbs was not in the mood for tardy agents, even if he was late because he'd been waiting for the Boss' special order.

Day Five Post Shipping Crate

Ziva glanced at her watch again a grimaced as she got off the bus and hurried the block or two to the Naval Yard, knowing that she was going to be late again today but whereas the last few days she had been five or ten minutes late, today she was almost 25 minutes late. She wasn't looking forward to facing Gibbs who had been like a bear with a sore face all week. Seriously, she did not know what had gotten into the man, and she thought she was making real progress in getting on his good flank. He'd even agreed to come to her dinner party, which was out of character based on the Intel she gathered for the team dossiers. Still, things had been weird since the container incident and not just because of Gibbs and his freaky behaviour and terrible moods.

Some of the people at the office maintained that it was because Tony was out sick, but Ziva felt like there was more going on than simply the fact that Gibbs' senior field agent was away from his position. The whole team, including Abby, was jumpy and snapping at each other and seemed short tempered, and the failure of equipment was puzzling. Her phones wouldn't work, McGee was ready to homicide his computers, Abby and her 'babies' were behaving badly and Gibbs' coffee was trying to bite his butt. Yes, Abby was right that things were definitely hinky. If she didn't know better, Ziva would think that they were being sabotaged.

Of course, if she was truly being paranoid, she would be thinking that someone was messing with the alarm on her phone if she didn't know better. For the last four mornings it had failed to go off on time and caused her to be late when Gibbs was already in a poultry mood. The annoying thing was that Ziva usually did not need an alarm to wake her up, but she had barely slept the last four nights and her dreams had been disturbing. For some reason that the Mossad Officer couldn't begin to understand, Ziva found her dreams taken over by the overtly brooding presence of Special Agent Caitlyn Todd, Shannon and Kelly Gibbs and for three nights they had shadowed her dreams, not speaking but simply hanging about oozing disapproval. While she had never met Shannon and Kelly Gibbs, she had seen photos of them, and for some reason her subconscious was conjuring up the trio, but they weren't saying anything.

That was until last night and then all of a sudden they'd had plenty to say. Todd had badmouthed her and Ari for her death, and well that was understandable since while Ari had killed Agent Todd, she had facilitated it. Then Shannon Gibbs took over, actively trying to intimidate her because of her orders to earn Gibbs' trust by killing her brother and joining the team. Shannon told her she knew what Eli David was up to and that she would be watching her closely, and if she ever hurt Jethro or her daughter she would haunt her for the rest of her days. That didn't make much sense to her since she could hardly hurt Gibbs' daughter now, could she? But then again, Ziva couldn't really make sense out of anything that had gone on since they got out of that damned shipping crate. Ziva was starting to wonder if she was going crazy.

Cate had also told her she knew what she was up to and why Ziva had chosen to leave Tony out of her dinner party for the team because she knew that it was the easiest way of shattering his confidence and driving a wedge between him and Gibbs. That she also hoped to destroy the friendship between him and Abby, too, since they both knew more about his bad childhood than anyone and he would be most hurt by their betrayal. Then Cate had conversationally mentioned that it must be frustrating to not be able to talk to her sources due to equipment failure and smiled maliciously. Ziva wondered what her subconscious was trying to tell her, perhaps that Agent Meatball was highly frustrating.

It definitely didn't mean that she was regretting her divide and conquer tactic to become Gibbs' top dog as well as his surrogate daughter. No, it was a common enough strategy that Mossad used all the time – _on their enemies not allies_ a small voice pointed out, as she was waiting for the elevator to arrive at the MCRT bullpen. She wished that she understood her father's rationale for caterpillaring her way into Gibb's team. It seemed odd, but she was a dutiful Mossad Officer, as Tony had pointed out last week, and she would follow her father's orders. Of course, turning up late four mornings in a row was hardly likely to ingratiate her into the leader's good books.

* * *

Angel's Requite

* * *

Gibbs had stormed out of the bullpen in a caffeine deprived rage and stomped all the way to the coffee shop before remembering that the damned quacks had recommended that he cut back on his coffee consumption. That was in spite of them being unable to find any reason why he had had such a violent reaction to coffee this week. Shooting him full of radiation, fool crap junk to drink and filling him with enough holes to resemble a pin cushion , while sucking out his blood like a vampire, they got nuthin. Deciding that doctors be damned, he bought a cup of coffee anyway and then wandered back to see what his team was up to. Since the team had been whining about their electronic doodads, he had been driven mad by them all and he'd had to get out, but now he wanted to sneak back to the bullpen to see if he could catch his agents slacking off while he was gone. Hearing Abby's voice he was about to tear them all a new one for wasting time, when he heard the Goth mention bad dreams which made him pause.

"So, don't you think that it's all a bit hinky that I've been having bad dreams and you both have been having bad dreams, too, and my babies have been playing up ever since the dreams started. I'm telling you they are connected; it's karma."

McGee snorted, "Abby, how can someone who is a scientist believe such crap?"

"So, Timmy, you're saying that you haven't been having bad dreams this week? Don't you dare lie to me cuz that little girl Kelly told me you've been having them too." She glared at him and he dropped his head guiltily, since he could never lie successfully to her. "Exactly, and are you trying to tell me that you've found out why your computer was freezing?"

McGee shook his head, stubbornly. "Just because I haven't been able to find the cause of the problem it doesn't mean that it is being caused by some dream, Abbs, just that I haven't found the cause yet."

"Did I say that the dreams were causing the phones to go hinky, or your computer to freeze, or my babies to freak out, or to stuff up my Silver Fox's gut?" Abby punched McGee to emphasize her point. "I simply said that they were connected to the dreams. Ziva, you said you have been having problems with your alarm and missing the bus and you've also had dreams since you were trapped in the shipping crate?" Abby interrogated, zealously attempting to prove her theory.

Ziva was confused. "Yes, I have been having odd dreams, but what are you saying? I do not understand. Who is karma?"

Abby's eyes gleamed with an idea. "Swap desks you two." When neither of them caught on, she punched McGee again.

"Ow, Abby, what are you hoping to prove?" McGee grumbled petulantly.

"Well, Mr. MIT, if there's something up with your computer, it should play up when Ziva uses it, too, and her phones are acting hinky so they shouldn't work for you. And karma is not a who, it's a what. It is the universe trying to redress wrongs and reward right behaviour. What goes around comes around and I think we are just getting our just deserts. So, McGee, are you game?"

Gibbs, listening shamelessly, knew that the chances of all four of them having disturbing dreams and having gremlins getting into their equipment was just too much of a coincidence. He didn't believe in coincidences and he wondered what the other team members dreams were about. He could hear McGee grumbling about evidence based reproducible empiricism and Abby making clucking chicken noises, taunting him and he wasn't surprised when Tim folded.

"Fine, have it your way, Abby." He whined. "Swap desks, Ziva. We'll prove to Abby that it's just coincidence."

As they swapped work stations, Gibbs could hear the pair grumbling and McGee was definitely stomping, annoyed that Abby had been able to manipulate him so easily. As they got situated, Ziva spoke up.

"I still do not see why this karma would be making our lives such a misery, Abby. Are we not the good folks? What have we done that would call this down on our team. We caught a counterfeit smuggling ring, no? Was that not good work?"

"It's good guys, and I think you know why, Ziva. We all behaved abominably and I for one am ashamed of myself. If it takes my best friend, Cate, and a blue-eyed little girl named Kelly and a spitfire of a lady with red hair that would turn the Bossman's head, to get right up in my face in a dream and remind me that a team needs to stick together and not turn on their own, then there is something very wrong with our team. Tony's saved all of our lives and no doubt will again if he doesn't decide to take his talents where he'll be more appreciated, or maybe that is what you all want."

She got up and started stomping off in disgust before almost sending Gibbs' coffee flying since he was so shocked to realise that Abby had been dreaming about his girls that he had forgotten to stay aware of his environment and people moving in it. How in Hell was that even possible, since she didn't know about them, and what were the other team members dreams about? Last night in his dream, he and Shannon and Cate and he wasn't even going there, watched Kelly and Tony play a duet on the piano together and then Kelly had yelled at him for making her blasted Tony-bear sad, just like Penny Carter was when her classmates wouldn't let her play with them. He was accustomed to horrific nightmares in his line of work but having his girls so mad at him was unbearable and he thought he was losing his marbles.

Smirking to have caught him out eavesdropping, Abby turned and smiled very sweetly at the junior agent. "Oh, and by the way, Timmy, Ziva's computer seems to be freezing on you. Well, that is hinky, but if you're still not convinced it's karma, you could always try using Tony's. Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to go back to my lab and see if I can come up with some way to make amends, since an apology will not cut it this time."

* * *

The Angel's Requite

* * *

Later, just before the team headed off for the day, as Shannon and I sat watching them all trying and failing to focus on work and avoid the elephant in the room, I wondered if anything we had done would change the way that Tony was treated by his team mates. Maybe Abby would think twice, but everyone else seemed to be busy enjoying their visit to the River Nile. When I shared my pessimism with Shannon, she agreed, but then she laughed boisterously.

"But it's sure been fun making them all sweat though, Cate. And even if Jethro is too much of a lug-head to get it, or at the very least admit that he gets it, at least Kelly is feeling better since she helped defend her Tony-bear."

I smiled thinking of Kelly lolling on Tony's couch with him as they watched Disney movies, which according to Shannon, he did whenever he was sick. I wondered if Tony had always done it or if it was a habit he'd developed after Kelly started dropping by. Watching as the team limped their way towards Friday afternoon freedom with no cases on the horizon, Jimmy Palmer stumbled his way out of the stairwell, practically falling over his feet like a too eager to please puppy, to see if anyone wanted to grab a drink after work. Getting no takers he stood for several minutes jiggling on one foot and then the other before finally summoning up the courage to speak again.

"Um, guys, I was thinking of cooking dinner for you all to thank Ziva for inviting us to her new apartment. Can you all come tomorrow night?"

McGee who was sipping on his coffee, started choking before muttering hurriedly about being busy fragging his hard drive, while Gibbs barked an excuse about a previous engagement while Ziva claimed to have urgent Mossad duties to attend to. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to to Jimmy, McGee or Ziva although I doubt that Gibbs was unaware that Abby had been eavesdropping on their conversation and when she stomped into the bull pen full of wrathful indignation, Jimmy repeated his offer to cook dinner. The Goth then preceded to whacked him over the head with her black lace parasol before turning her attention on the others, predicting dire consequences for anyone who left Tony out of team events in the future.

Shannon smirked at me. "Looks like it might have shook em up a bit, after all. Good job, Probie Todd. C'mon, girl, let's go check on Kelly and Tony. Something tells me we have a Disney movie night ahead.


End file.
